The Seeds We Sow
by CrazyExtreme
Summary: Ten years after Azula kills Avatar Aang, the world has plunged into chaos and Ba Sing Se has sealed of its borders. Sokka becomes an unlikely hero as he fights to protect the world's last hope. Rated for language and some violence.
1. Chapter 1: Morning Tea

Everything looks morbid. A rather disgusting morbid actually. That is the feeling that radiates from the city now. I see it on every person's face as they walk past me on these streets riddled with garbage and other unidentified forms of waste. To be honest, I think this feeling radiates from the entire world. To me it is depressing and chilling at the same time. Especially considering how different the world used to be before all of this. Even during the Great War there was at least a sense of hope. Now there is nothing.

I breathe a deep sigh and look up to see a sky filled with clouds accompanied by the occasional rain drop. It didn't exactly add anything positive to the atmosphere. But of course this took away from my ability to see in front of me and my foot landed in a pile of trash. "Shit," I said to myself, not caring if anyone heard me, "just what I needed." I leaned against a nearby wall and lifted my foot up to see if I had stepped in anything unpleasant. A quick inspection of my shoe revealed something sticky and black dangling from the heel. _Well that's not too bad._ I pulled my boomerang out of its sheath and scrapped whatever in the spirits name it was onto the ground. "I've stepped in much much worse." After that I decided to stay on the wall for a few more minutes instead of continuing the treck down the boulevrad of trash. The boomerang was already returned to its sheath and I could feel it digging into my back as I leaned against the stone. It was concealed by an Earth Kingdom styled jacket that was doing its best to keep me warm. Been a heck of a winter so far.

A headache has been pounding away at my skull all morning. Probably a result of the heavy amount of alcohol consumption from last night. Which in turn, is a direct result of the situation the world has found itself in. Some tea would really do wonders for me right now. I read up recently that jasmine tea could help eliminate the side effects of a hangover.

"Yeah... that would be awesome."

I'm not sure if it was pure luck or not but my eyes came to rest on a tea shop just across the street from me. "Now that's more like it," I said to myself probably much louder than I should have. I pushed off the wall and stumbled over the heaps of junk strewn everywhere. A slight breeze came out of nowhere, causing some of the lighter bits of junk to stir about in circles like mini tornados. My hair brushed lightly against the side of my face giving me the realization that I had forgotten to tie it up in its traditional wolf tail. _It can wait. Let me get my tea first._

The scene inside the coffee shop wasn't much different than what was going on outside. People were sitting at the various tables randomly placed around the dining area. Each person had a stone cold expression chiseled onto their face along with seemingly vacant eyes. Others were waiting in line for their morning headache remedy. There was also a man sitting on a stool over in the corner reading the news reports out loud to the rest of us. I watched as he reached for a scroll off of a nearby table and unrolled it. After a slight hesitation, he cleared his throat and read.

"Today marks the one thousandth day of the Siege of Omashu. The city, which has shown to have a seemingly unlimited number of resources, is now beginning to show signs of draining supplies. Many Earth Kingdom and Fire Nation soldiers have been seen throwing their bodies over the side of the two mile cliff that the city rests on. One can only speculate what has been going up there since reports stopped coming back a couple of years ago."

Nobody in the tea shop seemed have been paying a lick of attention to the man. They all just kept drinking their tea and staring off into space. Who could blame them? I shook my head in disbelief but it didn't exactly like the sudden movement as the increased pounding seemed to indicate. The man in the corner set the scroll down rather slowly and reached for the next one.

"The Si Wong dessert communities demand an end to the Northern Water Tribe's military occupation of its temples. A recent riot in one of the small town centers left a number of casualties on both sides of the conflict. The unrest has yet to be contained."

That was a slightly interesting story to me but of course on one else seemed to give a damn. The line inched forward a bit as I read the small menu above the counter. After deciding on a sufficient beverage, I reached into my coin pouch and began rummaging through it. The man's voice sounded again.

"The Ba Sing Se's Homeland Security Bill has been officially ratified. After ten years, the cities borders will remain closed. The deportation of illegal immigrants will continue."

That one definitly caught everyone's interest. Including mine. Of course everyone knew this city would follow through with that bill anyways. It had been doing so for ten years already back when everything first went down the tube.

I finally reached the counter and ordered my tea. The man working the shop barely even barley even acknowledged me as he poured the beverage into a cup and sat it down on the counter. I paid him the fee and made my way to a seat. That was when the man reached for the next scroll. _You know on second thought I think I would rather just leave. _I turned and made my way to the door. Unfortunately he read the news before I had even made it halfway there.

"This just in. The body of the last known water bender Katara has been discovered in a trench near the remains of what used to be the town of Gaoling. The proper authorities are still investigating the incident.

I stopped in my tracks. My heart felt as if it had just stabbed with a razor blade. The entire tea shop came to halt and all eyes turned to face the man. He just sat there in complete shock.

"No…"

For an instant my entire world vanished into a sea of denial but I brushed it aside in the next instant. My sister Katara… she was dead. My thoughts went back to the last time I had seen her ten years ago when the walls of Ba Sing Se were sealed off and she was caught on the wrong side. I remember Toph had gone missing that day as well. And Aang… I did my best to fight back the tears that had swelled up in my eyes but one made it through. My coat sleeve made quick work of it. Then I remembered how Katara was always talking about hope. She always had hoped for a better future, but on that day I could see it had vanished from her eyes.

"Dammit!"

I yelled as I threw my cup onto the ground, the pieces flying in ten different directions. The tea itself splashed into a puddle at my feet. Rather than wait for everyone's reaction, I turned and left the tea shop. The putrid scent of the outside world once again invaded my nose. Another round of tears formed in my eyes but this time I didn't even bother wiping them up as they ran down my cheeks. Instead, I reached into my coat and pulled out a small bottle of rice wine and began walking down the street again. My fingers were trembling, making it difficult to unscrew the lid but I managed to get it off. With my sister dead, that basically finishes off the hope of the Avatar ever being reborn to the Water Tribe. If the cycle wasn't broken before than it certainly was now. I muttered a curse word under my breath and took a large swig of the feel good juice. What happened next though was the icing to top off the cake.

The sound of an explosion tore into my ears and the entire earth beneath me shook, literally tossing me off of my feet. I instinctively wrapped my hands over my head before falling to the ground and in doing so, I lost my grip on the bottle. At first I could hear people screaming and the rattle of debris falling all around me but that was quickly replaced by an intense ringing in my ears that drowned out everything else. I could feel heat radiating onto my backside. Against my better judgment, I decided to roll over and see its source. My eyes were immediately greeted with a huge flame that was pouring out of the tea shop I had been in mere seconds ago. A man jumped from the shop completely engulfed in fire and at least a dozen other people had been hurled onto the street. Many more were scampering about in terror. I couldn't hear any of them.

I made an attempt to stand but my balance was still reeling from being chucked nearly three feet in the air. A second attempt proved successful and I managed to stagger over to a now abandoned venders stall. My headache was much worse now.

"Dammit to the Spirits!"

* * *

**AN: **The is the first thing I have posted since 2008. So I guess this story is two years in the making? It's good to be back.

Sokka may seem out of character now but the situation has really drained most of the life out of him. No worries though. I promise his goofy nature hasn't been totally lost. Also I know the story may be a bit confusing now but it will get explained in the coming chapters. This chapter was just intended to set the tone.


	2. Chapter 2: The World As It Is

**Ugh. I don't really have much of an excuse for this delay. I did use the time though to write out most of the story though if that's any consolation. I would recommend going back and reading the first chapter though.  
**

**By the way I don't own Avatar nor am I in any way affiliated with Nicktoons. Also I'm proud to say I had nothing to with the movie.**

* * *

There is nothing like a suicide bombing in the morning to really put things into perspective. This time morbid and grey was a complete understatement. Completely, absolutely, utterly hopeless was more like it and I could tell that just about everyone else around me just about felt the same way as I did. No one really has to say anything; it's just a vibe that I can pick up. You know with all the sniffling and crying that everyone was doing around the workplace. I'm not entirely sure what they are crying about but I had a good feeling it had to do with this morning's news of my sister's alleged death. It's good thing no one knew that the two of us were related. Dealing with all that sympathy would be too much too bear. But despite all the sadness in the air, everyone makes their best attempt to go about their business like normal. If one could call this normal anyway.

Despite my near death experience this morning, I surprised myself by still coming into work on time. Unfortunately I still had a hangover, and everyone's tears weren't exactly improving my condition. My job was at the Ba Sing Se city wide mail distribution center in case you were wondering. Originally I was in charge of sorting through the resistance's mail and sending it in the proper direction. Usually they were updates about what was going on outside the city walls which was the reason why I was so interested in the first place. I was hoping to catch some information about the friends and family I had been separated from but everything turned south when the resistance decided to morph themselves into radical terrorists. Been here ever since.

I felt like even more complete shit than usual. My ears were still ringing and it was hard to hear what was being said to me. After working for about an hour I opted for talking things over with my boss with the hope of going home early. I was surprised to find his office door slightly open as he usually had it closed at all hours. He didn't even acknowledge me when I stepped in.

"Excuse me sir, Mr. Yuen," I began. There was still no reaction from him. He didn't even twitch in my direction. "Um… I don't exactly feel good today sir. It seems as though I had a bad leaf in my tea this morning." I placed a hand on my stomach and keeled over a bit trying to imitate a gag reflex. "I would appreciate it if you would let me go home and rest up."

That managed to illicit a reaction from my boss. He turned his head slowly towards me and upwards from his sitting position. What I saw were red bloodshot eyes and tears streaming down the side of his face.

**####  
**

The wind had really begun to pick up speed since this morning. The trash and the dead leaves in the streets were being tossed every which way. My Earth Kingdom coat was doing very little to protect me from the sudden onslaught of chilly weather. There must be some kind of storm coming.

I was in the transit station waiting for one of those trams that connected the whole city together. Some of them were still powered by earth benders but the majority of them had been converted to coal power by the left over fire nation troops in the city. The amount of pollution they created was ridiculous and it always caused problems when the trams passed over and blanketed both people and houses in smoke. There was no word on if that was going to be fixed any time soon.

Thankfully the mood of the people around me seemed to have lightened up a bit, which wasn't saying much. Transit agents were stationed at their posts and spouting continuous propaganda about our government leaders and such. There were also large posters on every wall that read 报告所有可疑的活动. (Report all suspicious activity.)

"Where is this damn tram already?" I said to myself. The wind was picking up speed and it seemed to be knifing its way through my entire body. I sighed heavily and wrapped my arms around my chest to stay warm. You know it's times like these that I wish my old water tribe clothing still fit me or that I even still had them. After waiting for what seemed like an eternity, the tram finally arrived with a thick plume of smoke trailing behind. _Brilliant_. About a dozen people, including myself piled on bored. I seated myself near a window and this relatively cute girl sat down next to me. We made eye contact but after a few seconds it got awkward.

"Hi," I said trying to break the ice. She just forced a smile and looked in the opposite direction. I actually had a genuine smile on my face. A little bit of social interaction with a member of the opposite sex could go a long way. My thoughts were interrupted by a Dai Li agent walking down the center aisle. "Remember citizens!" he shouted. "Any harboring or sheltering of illegal immigrants is considered a crime by the government and you will be severely punished if any evidence is brought against you!"

That caught me off guard and I could tell the girl next to me was surprised as well. They were going to punish us for that now? This must be a part of the new law that was just enacted. "This is news," I said. I guess the girl must have heard me because she looked back in my direction. "I know," she replied trying to keep her voice down. "Seems a little extreme if you ask me."

"No kidding. My name is Sokka by the way," I held out my hand for her to shake.

She gave me another smile. "Jin," she said before taking my hand.

Finally the tram lurched forward and left the station. The window was partially obscured by the smoke but I could still see through it. There was a large fire out in the distance, possibly in the lower ring but I shrugged it off, not really concerned. Jin and I talked about the weather, the politics, and other random small talk. I learned that she was headed to her new job out in the farm lands in the outer ring. Not that there was much left to farm out there, but it paid decent money and she needed it to support her family. I didn't say anything about where I was headed except that I was meeting an old friend. Eventually we passed through the inner wall and the outer ring came into view. The fields stretched as far as the eye could see. I started to ask Jin how big her family was when a rock came sailing through the window and hit her square in the face. "Holy shit!" I jumped back in suprise. I could hear more rocks ricocheting off the trams exterior. Some of them were causing dents in the metal shell. I reacted instantly and ducked below the seat. I could see Jin, her body slumped into the center aisle with a large gash just above her eye. She wasn't moving. "Son of a bitch!"

I heard the Dai Li agent trying unsuccessfully to calm everyone down. I could also hear a large number of shouting from the outside as rocks continued to hit us. That was when I noticed the agent jump onto my seat and launch himself out the window in a fit of rage.

**####  
**

Jin's body was carted off at the very next station, still unmoving and bleeding profusely. No one said if she was going to be okay, and more Dai Li agents came onto the tram to question us one by one trying to find some information about who had attacked us. After nearly an hour they let us go, planning to start a search for their missing comrade.

Eventually I reached my destination and exited the tram. There were three large holding pins lined up in the back of the station and stuffed to the brim with people. A mixture of both fire bending and earth bending soldiers were keeping watch, most likely to prevent escape. I just kept walking past, doing my best to ignore the cries and begs of the prisoners. But I couldn't help but notice an old woman dressed in what looked to be traditional Fire nation garb. She was crying softly to herself and two little kids, one boy and one girl, tugged desperately at her arms trying to make sense of the confusion. Both were on the brink of tears themselves. I just took a deep breath and continued on. It's a shame I lost my bottle of rice wine this morning.

A couple of minutes later and I managed to get through the security checkpoints. On the other side I was greeted by a familiar face, the face of an old man who clearly showed more age than he actually was. "What's up my old friend?" he said as he wrapped his arms around me in an embrace. I could feel the smile on my face as I returned the motion. "Not much Hamir. Not much at all."

**####**

"Do you know who did it Sokka?"

Hamir's words knocked me out of my trance and plunged me back into reality. I was in the passenger seat of his small buggy and he was in the driver seat. An ostrich horse led the way down the surprisingly narrow road that led to his house that was literally in the middle of nowhere. I could feel the old man's gaze penetrating the side of my skull.

"Did what?" I asked.

"The bomb."

Oh that… "Shit no. could be Earth Rebels, Fire Loyalists, The Kyoshis. Those are the usual suspects anyway."

"I bet you ten gold pieces that the government is involved," Hamir said with a slight chuckle. "Every time one of those damn politicians is in trouble, a bomb goes off in the neighborhood."

I couldn't help but shake my head at that bit of info because it was more than likely true. I swear some of those higher up fools must be drinking cactus juice on a regular basis. "Well if it is true, then that would make it the second time this month."

"You feeling any better?"

This time I actually turned to look him in the face. "No," I said.

A slight grin crept onto his face. "It's a good thing you don't take sweetener or lemons in your tea my friend. Loosing you and your sister in the same day would be too much to bear."

My sister… of course he would bring that up. It's only logical that he would of course. She was my sister after all. Honestly though, after getting over the initial shock of that news, I began to seriously ponder the circumstance of her death. By all apparent reason, it didn't make any damn sense. Apparently her body was found alone in a ditch with no sign that anybody else was there with her. Well I happen to know my sister very well, and I just so happen to know that she would never travel alone. There was only one logical explanation and that was misinformation.

"I don't think she is really dead," I declared to no one in particular. "She can't be."

"Well there is really no way to tell for sure," Hamir answered back. "This new law about illegals that the Grand Secretariat passed today makes it to where we can no longer leave the city anymore."

'Yeah as if we could do that before the law was passed," I said.

"Hey! Move over!"

Hamir mumbled a curse under his breath and pulled on the reigns. The ostrich horse squawked in protest and moved onto the grass. I turned to see a large caravan moving past with Dai Li agents up front. They were seated on a large buggy that had windows lined with bars. I could just make out the faces of the people inside. "Illegals," Hamir said. "Looks like they're taking them to the camp by Lake Laogai."

"They use this road?" I asked confused.

"Occasionally yes." Hamir had a sad look in his eyes. "I feel sorry for them my friend. After escaping the worst atrocities and finally making it to Ba Sing Se, those agents hunt them down like animals."

We sat in the buggy and watched until the caravan was out of site. A cool breeze ruffled my hair that was now in its wolf tail and some kind of a bird was chirping out in the distance somwhere. "Life sure does suck doesn't it?"

**####  
**

I held a small green box in my hands. The material that lined the outside was surprisingly well made and of good quality. I noticed that the label read 快速沉默. (Quick Silence) "How interesting," I said being completely honest.

"Ah yes, I just got that in the mail today courtesy of our government." Hamir was seated across from me in a small couch sipping on a cup of tea. His eyes were now on the little green box that was in my lap.

您决定何时 (You Decide When) was written on the in small characters on the bottom of the golden label.

"Pretty nifty eh?"

'Stupid is more like it," I said, placing the box on a table between us. My legs and arms were still feeling stiff from the ride over and I decided to stretch them out a bit before leaning back into the chair. "I suppose it makes sense though with the Avatar cycle broken and all. Not much hope left in the world."

Hamir Seemed stunned by that admonition and placed his cup onto the table. After a slight hesitation he spoke. "You really think it's broken?"

"Honestly?" I leaned forward in my seat and looked him in the eyes. He was unfazed. "Yes," I said before letting out a huge sigh and looking down at my feet. "I don't know," was what came out of my lips, barely audible. "It's the general idea though." Hamir heard me clear as day.

"You see? This is the main problem in the world. Everyone has given up hope. You know one of the things I used to admire about your sister was that she never seemed to lose that."

"Seriously Hamir?" I said slightly annoyed. "You never even met her."

"No," he continued. "But you showed me those letters she had written to you just after everything happened and I could tell what was in her spirit. The seeds we sow in this life Sokka will be the ones we pass on to the next generation."

I pondered that for a moment and looked back up at him. He picked his cup of tea up off the table, being careful not to spill any over onto his hands.

"Why bother with that?" I said to him. "It's not like the kids will have anything to look forward to." Hamir merely shrugged before taking a sip of his tea.

**####  
**

I woke up that next morning in my apartment. The headache was back again thanks to my newly replenished cabinet of rice wine and the ringing in my ears still hadn't ceased. The gloom was back again just like every morning before. As I walked out the door I noticed one of those little green boxes against the wall. I just tossed it onto my bed before making my way down the stairs, through the front lobby, and out onto the street filled with the standard shit load of trash everywhere. Going against my better judgment, I decided to take my chances and go for another cup of tea. Thankfully the universe decided to spare me by not including another explosions into the morning routine. As I was headed to work, I came across an entire apartment block that had been raided by the Dai Li. Some of the residents were being forced to wait in a line as the agents went over their papers, while the others were being thrown into cages. There was a lot of screaming and shouting as all their belongings were being tossed out the windows into a pile on the ground below. I just kept walking as usual.

I crossed the street and made my way down the sidewalk to the mail office. But then something happened that I never would have expected. A black sack was placed over my head and I could feel the distinct pressure of a sword against my throat. "Fucking move!" A women's voice sounded out. Two more sets of hands grabbed hold of both of my arms before I could do anything and I was tossed into some kind of a carriage or buggy. I made a move for my boomerang that was in its sheath but something slammed into the back of my head. After that, everything faded.

* * *

**Well it's time to get the ball rolling. I already have the next chapter written so it shouldn't take too long to type it up and post it here. Let me know what you think.**

**P.S. I also give credit to** **toby7400 for the idea behind different languages and the translations. You should check out his story called "The Fire Princess." It's pretty damn good.**


	3. Chapter 3: The Kyoshi Initiative

**Oh yeah. Insert disclaimer here:_**

**Edit: The typos that were on here when I originally posted this chapter were seriously bothering me. So i went back And fixed them. Well... here you go.  
**

* * *

"You are now under the jurisdiction of the Kyoshi Initiative. The Kyoshi Initiative states that we are at war with the Grand Secretariat of Ba Sing Se until he recognizes equal rights for every refugee in the city."

There was a slight hesitation but the voice was obviously that of a woman's, the same woman's voice that put a sword to my neck and presumably knocked me out cold. And based on the incredibly noble speech that was coming from her mouth, I would say that she was a member of the Kyoshi Warriors. Perfect.

When I came to, the black bag was still over my head and I think I was still in the moving vehicle. But eventually we stopped and I was led to some unknown location and forced to sit in a chair with my arms tied up behind me. Another voice chimed in, also that of a woman's.

"We're not going to hurt you. We just want to talk. But don't do anything stupid."

Well I'm not sure how I could do anything stupid considering the fact that I was tied to a damn chair. There was also the point that I had a massive headache, whether it was from being knocked out or if it was from a hangover.

"Will you just uncover him?"

That voice sounded strikingly familiar, but I didn't feel like putting two and two together. My head was hurting too badly.

"No it's not safe."

"Just do it."

After another moment's hesitation, a knife cut through the rope on my wrists and a hand pulled the black bag away from my head. All I saw was a small and dimly lit room with about three dark forms standing about. One of them was casually leaning against the wall on the far side which was only about five feet away. I tried to squint to get a better view off their faces but it was too dark.

"Hello Sokka." The sound of that voice literally caught me off guard. More so than anything else that had happened in the past couple of days. I didn't bother answering back at that point due to the shock. "It's me Sokka. It's Suki."

I swear if my jaw wasn't physically held in place by bone and muscle tissue, it would have dropped to the floor possibly leaving a crater. The voice had come from the one leaning against the wall. It sounded like her but it just couldn't be. The hair was too long.

"Mailey, get the lights," she said.

A moment later and a couple of candles had been lit, casting a haunting glow around the tiny room. I could see her face clearly now. Her hair had indeed grown longer, just a little bit past her shoulders. She also wasn't wearing the traditional Kyoshi makeup or uniform. But other than that she looked the same as before. She hadn't aged a bit it seemed.

"You scared the shit out of me," I finally said.

"Yeah, I'm sorry about all the theatrics. The Dai Li have been a serious pain lately."

I just nodded unsure of what to say. But my mind was going about a hundred miles an hour trying piece together why she would come after me after such a long period of time.

"How have you been?" she asked.

"Fantastic," I replied. "Couldn't be better."

A small smile appeared on her face, but moment later it vanished. I'll admit this situation is very, very awkward and she must have thought the same because for about a minute, no one spoke. I decided to step up to the plate and break the ice.

"The Dai Li keep using that old picture of you for the wanted posters. I got to say it really doesn't do you justice."

"What do the Dai Li know about justice?"

I couldn't argue with that. Her smile returned again and I could tell I had amused her at least slightly with that statement.

"So what exactly do you girls do again?" I asked for no apparent reason.

Before Suki had a chance to respond, the girl standing next to her spoke. "We are the Kyoshi Warriors and we have enacted an initiative to fight for equal rights for every refugee in Ba Sing Se."

"Calm down Mailey," Suki said. "He knows exactly what we do."

"Oh yeah," I jumped in. "I know you almost fucking blew me up in a tea shop yesterday. My ears are still ringing."

That girl Mailey looked genuinely angered by that comment. She marched over to me and practically yelled into my ear. "We don't bomb! It was the government. It's what they do to spread the fear."

She was really starting to get on my nerves. "Yeah? Well what about the University?" I said vaguely remembering something about a terrorist act pinned on these same girls. It was unconfirmed of course but the government always tried to convince everyone otherwise.

"After the University we stopped bombing," Suki said. "We started speaking to the people."

That was unexpected. I always figured the government was just a bunch of lying wolf bats and that the Kyoshi Warriors I had known for years weren't capable of killing, especially Suki. But apparently there was some truth behind at least some of that propaganda. My respect for these girls went down immensely. I did the best sarcastic nod I could manage.

"They're joining us Sokka, even some of the old Fire Nation Soldiers."

I looked up at her trying to figure out where she was going with this. "Public speaking isn't exactly my best skill."

"You used to fight for freedom Sokka," she said, completely ignoring my comment.

"That was ten years ago. I'm a lot more successful now."

Now no one was amused by that comment. Suki just shook her head. She walked up to me, grabbed my arm and hoisted me up to my feet. It never failed to surprise me how strong she was. As much as I don't want to admit, it was good to see her again, even with the new revelation of her ordering people's deaths.

"Walk with me," she said sliding the door open and stepping out of the room. I followed her without question. We walked into what appeared to be a large building of some sort. It was completely empty except for the occasional piece of trash that littered the floor. It was also dimly lit, much to my discomfort. I glanced back and noticed that we had previously been in a small room that was tucked into the corner. The other two Kyoshi girls, Mailey included, followed us out. Both of them also lacked the makeup and uniform.

I reached into my coat pocket and noticed that my bottle was still there. It was amazing that they hadn't taken it. I decided not to think too much about why and opted for unscrewing the lid and taking a swig. Suki noticed and the look on her face showed mixture of shock and displeasure.

"I didn't know you drink," she said. The disappointment in her voice was quite obvious.

"Yeah," I answered back. "It's not working."

She sighed and glanced down to the floor. I casually glanced back at that irritating Mailey chick. She was eying me fiercely, seeming to indicate that she would straight up murder me if I did anything rash. Her stare, coupled with the prolonged silence was starting to make things awkward again.

"So…" I said in an attempt to ignore the girl staring into my back side. "Why exactly did you bring me here?"

Suki hesitated a moment before speaking. "It's about this little girl."

"Oh. What about this girl?"

"We need to get her out of the city past all of the security checkpoints. And I need you to get the transit scrolls for it."

I was taking another shot of the drink when she said that, causing me to choke. Some of it managed to escape my mouth and onto the floor as I keeled over. With my hands on my knees it took me nearly a minute to recover from the coughing. "Seriously?" I strained asked.

Suki just looked at me, pleading me with those brown eyes that was impossible for me to ignore. She really was beautiful.

"Okay," I said shaking those thoughts from my head as I stood back up. "How do you expect me to do that? I work in the post office not the transit authority."

"I know you have connections with a man who monitors the transit officials and he works under the table with the refugees."

"Who? Jet?" I looked at her incredulously. Does she mean that deranged, brainwashed psychopath who tried to kill me on multiple occasions in the past? Surely she didn't mean him. But she nodded indicating that I had guessed right. "Um… baby?" I said. "Sorry to burst your bubble, but last I checked, the Grand Secretariat still has that crazy guy on a leash."

It's true. All those years ago when Aang was still with us, we left Jet under the caverns of Lake Laogai with his friends. According to my understanding, the Dai Li recaptured him and somehow managed to heal his wounds. Now he quite literally does what is asked of him.

"Maybe he is," Suki said. "But it's a risk we have to take."

"It's a risk you can't afford."

"Listen Sokka." She moved to stand mere inches from my face. I took a step back. "We have money. I know you need it."

"What are you talking about? I don't need your fucking money."

Her reaction to that wasn't anything like I was expecting. Maybe some kind of a reprimand, a cold stare, or a long exasperated sigh was what I was anticipating. Instead she decided to lean forward and kiss me. I was caught entirely off guard. The strange thing was that I didn't bother to break away and instead, accepted it. I noticed Mailey and the other girls off to the side tense up. Clearly they weren't expecting this either. Suki finally pulled back and ran a hand nervously through her hair. I noticed her cheeks were slightly red, and I imagined mine were too based on how warm my face felt. In all honesty, I enjoyed that.

"Wow," was all I was able to say.

"I'll give you two days," Suki said. "I hope you make the right choice."

Needless to say, I was pretty much convinced.

**####****  
**

About thirty minutes later I was back in the carriage thing with a black sack over my head… again. Mailey and another girl were sitting on either side of me. The former of which was spouting all of this shit into my ear.

"You best watch your back because we will be watching it," she said.

I sighed inwardly. This girl was incredibly skilled at pulling on my strings and I was about fed up with it. I decided not to say anything though in the event that she found my opinion of her unsatisfactory.

"When you go to work, when you go to sleep, when you take a piss we will be watching."

"Oh I'm sure you'll enjoy that show," I said, my instincts getting the better of me. The girl on the other side of me started to laugh out loud but she was cut short by what I assumed to be Mailey's death glare. The rest of the ride was quiet and uneventful thank the spirits. Eventually we stopped and I was thrown out of the carriage thing. The black sack was removed from my head and I came face to face with Mailey. To my surprise, she was kind of cute. But it wasn't enough to compensate for her personality in my opinion.

"Don't do anything stupid," she said before getting back into the carriage. The Kyoshi girl up front pulled on the reigns and they sped away, leaving me alone in what appeared to be the lower ring of the city.

**####**

I wasted no time making arrangements to meet with Jet. It wasn't really that difficult considering the fact that we had known each other in the past. That simple fact allowed me to cut into the line in front of the other random people waiting to see him. I wasn't sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing, but before I knew it though I had a meeting set up with him that very afternoon.

I managed to get out of work again today so I could make my way over. The streets were filled with the usual trash heaps and gloomy pedestrians but today had something new. A significantly large group of ex-Fire Nation soldiers had formed together in the streets as some sort of a repentance thing. Many held up posters that read ペストは我々のせいだ (The Plague is our fault) while a man who I assumed was their leader was standing on a makeshift stage ranting on about how they had sinned and the spirit of Agni was punishing them. That was an interesting development but I didn't have time to investigate it. It took my nearly an hour to work my way through the crowds of citizens who had gathered to see what all the commotion was. When I finally reached the Office of Transit Affairs it was well into the evening.

Unfortunately no drinks were allowed inside of the building and I was forced to leave my bottle at the security desk. On the bright side, I was spared a long wait despite my lateness and was immediately allowed to see the "Manager of Transit Affairs" aka Jet.

**####**

"It's good to see you Sokka. Long time no see."

"Good to see you too," I said lying through my teeth at him. The truth is I didn't want anything to do with this back stabbing traitor. Not after crap he got my friends into in the past. My mostly dead friends…

"So what brings you to my office?" he asked inquisitively. He seems as though he was scanning my whole body just looking for something suspicious or out of place. I reached into my thoughts, going over the story I had fabricated in my head on the way over here.

"Well the thing is, I met this girl," I said.

"Cute?"

"Yes."

"Is it serious?"

"Very." I leaned forward in my seat hesitantly. Why does he care about my completely made up romantic relationship with a girl he has never met? He must be trying to pry me open and get me to spill everything. It wasn't going to work on me.

"That's great and all," he said. "But I don't think you came all the way over here to discuss your personal life with me."

He was being rather forceful. But then again, brainwashed government officials aren't exactly known for their patience. "She has a brother," I said doing my best to mask my nervousness. "He lives in a village outside of the city wall and she hasn't seen him for about a year. He's very sick now. I don't think he is going to make it."

"That's a bummer. Does he have the plague?"

"More than likely."

Jet shook his head before seeming to lose himself in thought. I continued to speak unabated. "I was wondering if I could get her transit scrolls out of the city."

"Transit scrolls? Wow that's quite a favor." He stifled a laugh but his stare continued to bore right into me. He doesn't seem like he's buying it. There wasn't anything I could do about it though other than to continue onward. "It will be the only thing I will ask of you."

A long minute of silence passed as Jet was contemplating his options. At least I assumed that's what he was doing. He was sitting there like a mindless statue still looking right at me and it was really starting to creep me out. I began to wonder if I had made a serious mistake meeting with this guy. I remembered that my boomerang was sheathed on my back and I slowly moved my hand towards. Maybe if I pretend like I'm scratching my back then he won't notice I'm reaching for it.

"I'll see what I can do," Jet said suddenly.

"Oh okay." I eased my arm back down into my lap. I know I should have probably be feeling a flood of relief coming over me right about now but it wasn't happening. Jet was no doubt suspicious.

"All in a day's work old buddy," he said with a smile. Old buddy? I was never an old buddy with him and nor would I ever even consider agreeing to having been buddies with him in the past. He stood up from his desk and motioned me to follow him out of his office. I stood and went with him. He took me into a room with a bunch of cabinets, some of which wouldn't even close all the way because they were filled with junk. There was trash strewn all about the room and the waste bin itself was overflowing. Someone seriously needs to do a bit of house cleaning around here.

"Ah here we go," Jet finally said after searching through the cabinets for a good ten minutes. He pulled out a scroll and unrolled it for me to see. "All we have are joint transit scrolls," he said. "But I'm assuming this doesn't bother you too much."

It did bother me actually but there wasn't much I could do about this. I didn't want to risk myself getting into trouble deeper than I already was. I might as well just accept this and see what Suki planed to do next. With nothing more than a slight shrug I accepted the writing brush and signed my name on it.

"Well that's that," Jet said as he rolled it back up and handed it to me. "Good luck out there though. You don't want to catch the plague."

I just nodded in agreement as I left the room.

**####**

A couple of hours later and I still had trouble believing what had gone down in that office. There was no logical reason Jet would agree to help me, unless he really was working under the table to help the immigrants. I suppose it doesn't really matter though. Either way I've managed to get myself involved in illegal activities just like the good old days of harassing the Fire Nation in every way possible. Only this situation was different and potentially much more dangerous.

Once I finally got a hold of the transit scrolls the realization dawned on me that Suki never gave me a way of contacting her back. So I sat on a bench for another hour trying to figure out if I was in a dream or if this girl was screwing with my mind. Neither of those options seemed likely though. The sun had already passed behind the city wall and stars were beginning to appear in the increasingly dark sky. Then I remembered the words that Mailey had spoken to me earlier this morning. _We will be watching you._

My first thought was to go and take a piss and see if that girl was true to her word. But I quickly decided against it believing that getting caught with my pants down around that girl was the last thing I ever wanted to do. Not that she was ugly or anything, she just seemed unpredictable. Instead I opted for standing in the middle of an empty lot. The idea was that it would be easy to spot someone watching me. It turns out I was wrong about that one.

"You know it's passed the curfew right?" Mailey's voice startled me. I whirled around and tried to assume a fighting stance but I nearly fell over. She merely shook her head in disbelief. Crap, my fighting skills are apparently rusty. I'll have to work on that.

"Don't sneak up behind a man at night." I said trying to play it off.

"I don't see a man around here to be startled."

Damn that was cold. She didn't give any indication that she was joking either. But instead of starting a war with words I chose to ignore that remark and hand her the scroll. She snatched it from my hand, unrolled it, and read over its contents.

"Where is Suki," I asked.

"She couldn't make it. But she sends her regards."

She continued to read the scroll in silence. After a couple of long minutes of waiting, I was beginning to wonder if she was actually reading the scroll or if she was just standing there staring at it. After another minute she finally spoke.

"This is a joint transit scroll."

"I know. It's all he would give to me." The joint scroll basically means I would have to escort this girl to the outer wall myself. I didn't exactly care too much for that idea. The trip would take at least another day and I couldn't afford to skip out on work again.

"Will you do it?" she asked.

Me? They expected me to take her out of the city? I thought about the situation some more. Going with these people was something I definitely did not want to do but maybe I could use this to my advantage. "Only if you're willing to pay me a little extra," I said.

She nodded her head in agreement before putting the scroll away. "Meet me at the southern tram station tomorrow morning when the sun first appears over the city walls."

It was my turn to nod. So it was all set now. In just a couple of hours I will be off on an entirely unexpected adventure to the outer wall of Ba Sing Se and back again. Mailey turned and started to walk away but she stopped a moment later.

"Suki thinks very highly of you by the way."

"Really?" I asked curiously. Why would this girl feel obligated to tell me that? I started to ask her what the purpose of telling me that was but she spoke again before I could even open my mouth.

"Thanks for your help." And with that, she vanished around the corner of some decrepit looking apartment buildings and once again leaving me alone in the lower ring.

**####**

The next morning started off the same way every other morning. It consisted of waking up and crawling out of bed with a serious hangover. I got myself dressed in the same way as every morning prior, put on my dark green Earth Kingdom coat, and put my hair in the good old fashioned wolf tail. When I left my apartment building I flipped the bird at the same old homeless man who always sits in the same spot on the sidewalk and who always feels the need to flip the bird at me first. Just routine.

I almost walked into a tea shop for some headache relief but I quickly decided that was a bad idea. Instead I just made my way to the southern tram platform and waited. It was still a little dark outside and the air was chilly enough to make my nose sting every time I breathe in. It was nowhere near a cold as the South Pole obviously, but it was just enough to hit my level of discomfort. The mixed smell of trash and smoke from the tram didn't do much to help the atmosphere either.

Soon the sun was rising up over the inner wall and I decided to look for a clue or some signs of what to do next. But once again, I didn't have to look too hard.

"Good you're here." Mailey's voice appeared from behind me. I spun to see her already walking towards a newly arrived tram. "We better get going now," she said.

I hurried after her.

"We are meeting Suki at the inner wall station," she said this time in a hushed voice. I assumed she was trying to discourage anyone from listening in. "She is waiting outside the station with the girl and the girl's mother."

"Sounds like a plan," I said nervously. I'll admit I am a little anxious about this. After all it has been awhile since I've been involved in illegal activities. We both made sure to sit on opposite sides of the tram as to not draw any attention to ourselves. After waiting for the remaining people to get on board, we departed. The ride was mostly uneventful despite the fact that the tram was crammed full of people headed out into the farm lands to look for work. It's unfortunate the transit line doesn't go all the way to the outer wall any more though. It would make this the easiest job ever if that was the case.

**####**

"Hey Sokka." A surprisingly bright smile appeared on the not so surprisingly beautiful face on the woman in front of me. She was leaning against a wall a couple of meters away with her arms folded casually across her chest. Her long hair, which I still haven't grown accustomed to yet, lightly draped over and around her shoulders. The Kyoshi makeup and outfit were absent just as before.

"How's it going Suki?" was all I wanted t say at the moment. As much as I would enjoy a friendly conversation with her, the quest for answers was much more pressing.

She pushed of the wall and made her way towards me, the smile still lighting up her face. "Not too bad considering the dangerous nature of the situation."

Mailey had gone ahead of us to meet with the girl and her mother I'm guessing to prepare them for departure. Suki turned and headed in the same direction before I had a chance to say anything else.

"Wait Suki hold up a sec," I said, stopping her in her tracks. "I don't even know what's going on here."

"I'll explain it to you later."

"No," I reached forward and put a hand on her shoulder. It was warm to the touch. A small and long forgotten feeling of tenderness rose up inside of me but I quickly suppressed it. Old feelings don't go away easily do they? This whole thing may have been a really bad idea. I sighed and turned her to face me.

"Just look at me Suki. You know I can't stand not having a plan. Tell me what's up."

She didn't make eye contact with me. In fact, she wasn't even looking in my direction. I could tell she was thinking hard about something though. Maybe she was trying to find the right words to say? For a moment I just looked at her other unsure of what to do next. Sweat was starting to build up underneath my coat making me feel a bit uncomfortable. I probably should have worn lighter jacket

"So why did you come to me for transit scrolls?" I asked her in an attempt to break the silence. "You could have found another way to get them."

"Yeah probably, but I trust you." The smile returned on her face though it wasn't as big as before. She turned and started walking in the direction Mailey had gone. I followed her through this dark and damp tunnel. Everything smelled like shit down which somehow managed to surprise me considering the fact that we were underneath the inner wall. I guess by now though it probably shouldn't surprise me at all though.

"So what happens afterward?" I asked trying to distract myself from the smell.

"We'll take the tram back. It will be safer."

"No I mean what happens to us?" I was dying to know the answer to this question, because to be completely honest, I didn't want her to vanish into obscurity again for another ten years. Suki looked my way and stopped again. She seemed to be fumbling over the right words to say.

"I don't know," was all she said. Instead of continuing onward though she leaned forward and gave me another kiss. Once again it caught me off guard, but sending an incredibly awesome high throughout my entire body. I could definitely get used to this. After that she continued on with me basically stumbling after her.

A couple of minutes later and we cleared the tunnel finally free of that toxic smell. Mailey was waiting with a medium sized buggy just outside with an impatient look on her face. She nodded her head in acknowledgment of me and I gave her a nod back. It was probably the nicest and most civilized interaction between us so far.

"So I assume we have a plan here?" I asked with little hope of getting an answer.

"Yes," Mailey replied. "We will take you as far as the Yang Xi checkpoint by the rice fields. After that you and the girl are on your own."

Wow, today is certainly full of surprises. Someone actually gave me the gist of what was going on instead of dragging me around in the darkness like a blind lemur dog. Mailey made her way around to the side of the buggy and opened the door for me to get in. I stepped into the vehicle and took a seat. Beside me was a woman slightly older than I was and on the other side of her was a young girl. She couldn't have been older than fourteen years old. What really stood out to me though was that they were both wearing Fire Nation clothing. This was an interesting development.

Suki climbed into the seat in front of me and Mailey sat beside her, taking hold of the reigns. Before setting off she turned to look at us in the back. "Sokka that's the girl, her name is Izumi. And this is her mother Lien. She won't be able to go with you since the scroll has your name on it."

Yeah like it was my fault I didn't know what all was going on when I got these scrolls. How was I supposed the know the girl even still had a mother? I just brushed that comment aside and decided to meet the new guests.

"Hi how's going?" I put on my friendly expression in order to greet Lien but she only gave me a nervous nod. _Well that's start_, I thought to myself as I looked past her at Izumi.

"So what did you do? Rob a bank." I joked.

"Shut up you idiot," she said to me with more venom than I expected. _Wow. Okay never mind._

No one, not even Suki seemed to be amused by my comment. I slowly and awkwardly eased back into my seat before letting out a long and annoyed sigh. So it turns out I'm traveling with people who lack sense of humor. This is going to suck.

Mailey just rolled eyes and turned back to the front before pulling on the reigns. And with that we set off on are wonderful and completely humorless journey.

* * *

**This was a very difficult chapter to write with so many different things going on but I hope I nailed it decent enough. As a little fun fact, I would like to point out that there were more words in this chapter than the first two combined.  
**

**This was inspired by The Serpents Pass episode and how the Kyhoshi Warriors helped out the refugees with the absence of their uniforms and such.**

**I would seriously like some more reviews though. I don't care if it's positive or negative, I just want to know how I'm doing and how I can improve this story. Your opinion counts!  
**

**I would also like to warn everyone that things are going to get pretty crazy after this chapter. Just to let you know.  
**


	4. Chapter 4: Death And All His Friends

**Before i say anything about his chapter, i would like to point out that I'm not too satisfied with how the last chapter turned out. I've definitely learned to take my time and to not rush the creative juices.**

**Okay so this chapter here will change the story dramatically because something interesting finally happens! I hope you enjoy it! Oh and if you have time, drop me a review of your opinion. I want to get better at this.**

**Without further ado, I present chapter four.**

**Edit: Just went through the chapter and corrected mistakes. If you spot anymore then let me know.  
**

* * *

It was actually turning out to be a beautiful day outside despite everything. The sun was high over head and the sky was almost completely devoid of clouds. The air wasn't too cold nor was it too hot for comfort. It felt just right. And, despite the buggy's wheels hitting the occasional hole in the road, I found myself drifting off to sleep. I could hear Suki and Mailey chattering about something up in the front but at this point I was too lazy to listen in on their conversation. Lien and her daughter Izumi were sitting beside me in complete silence. I guess they were enjoying the scenery or something.

We had been on the road for a good two hours now, and we passed into a rather large forest that I had no idea existed in the outer ring. It was a nice change of pace from the constant rolling farmlands that stretched on almost as far as the eye could see. The new environment also came with the sounds of birds chirping in the trees over our heads. There must have been hundreds of them by the sound of it.

My boomerang was digging into my back again, forcing me to readjust myself in the seat. While doing so, I let out a yawn that was a little bit louder than I intended it to be. It caught Suki's attention and she looked back at me with a beaming smile.

"Sleep well?"

"I'll go with yes," I replied. My legs were starting to fall asleep. So I sat up and tried to stretching my legs out as best as I could without standing up. I also noticed that I was feeling a bit groggy. Maybe taking a nap wasn't such a good idea.

"Are we there yet?" I asked in a joking manner.

"No not yet."

_How joyous._ My stomach growled a bit signaling that it was hungry. _I could really go for a fried sea slug right about now_, I thought to myself. _Haven't had one of those in awhile._ It would just have to wait until I got back. In the meantime, I reached into my coat pocket and pulled out my good old friend Mr. Bottle. Lien and Izumi both noticed this and they both looked on as I unscrewed the lid and took a swig

"Suki you told me this guy was gonna be suave," Izumi said. "He's just a drunk."

I was beginning to believe that this girl's sole purpose in life was to insult me. Not that I was offended or anything. It was just strange hearing it from a fourteen year old girl. At least I assumed that's how old she was.

"You should have seen him back in the old days," Suki said with her never faltering smile "He was a real activist."

"What are you talking about Suki," I jumped in. "I can still be pretty suave, especially when you are around."

She chuckled, "I think you need to work on your skills babe. They seem pretty rusty."

_Rusty? How dare she. _That managed to illicit a laugh from Izumi though. So she has a sense of humor after all. Her mother on the other hand seemed only slightly amused and Mailey? Well that was an entirely different story. Apparently I'm rusty at a lot of things. But hey, at least my sarcasm is still just as strong as ever. I glanced over to Mailey to see her just sitting in the driver seat, eyes straight ahead and focused on the road. She held the reigns to the ostrich horse that lead the way.

"You good up there?" I asked trying to sound as polite as possible. "You could take a break. I could switch with you if you like."

She spoke without even bothering to look back, "You don't even know where we are going."

"I just figured I would keep heading south like we've been doing for the past two hours."

She hesitated. "Well… no thanks. Just go back to sleep or something."

"Suit yourself," I shrugged and relaxed back into my seat. For some reason she struck me as nervous but I couldn't put my finger on exactly why she would be. Was she picking up on a vibe that I wasn't getting? Maybe we were being watched. Slowly I sat up and gazed at the woods around us. If someone was spying on us then it would be almost impossible to spot them.

"So Lien," I asked trying to calm my suddenly anxious nerves. "Are you a fire bender?"

The woman seemed shocked by my sudden question. She stuttered a bit before speaking. "Well no. but my daughter is."

I looked past her at Izumi who was giving me the arched eyebrow look. The girl seemed suspicious of me for some reason.

"Well that's pretty cool," I said. Honestly though, I wasn't too big of a fan of fire benders. After all it is their fault we are in this shit hole of a mess we are in now. Fire benders have never really been known for their ability to show empathy and I seriously could have done without meeting these two, but there was no way I was going to tell Suki that. But, then again, I suppose they have atoned for their sins. I mean their home country is practically nonexistent now.

I started to ask them how they ended up in Ba Sing Se when Suki interrupted my thought process.

"Sokka there is something I want to tell you, it's about your sister."

"What?" I asked completely taken aback. The look in her eyes showed that she was being very serious.

"She is not dead. She's alive and you are taking Izumi to see her outside of the city. That's why I wanted you to come."

I was floored by this revelation. A part of me wanted to jump up and shout for joy and the other half wanted to go back to the inner ring and beat the crap out of the people who fed me the wrong information. Still though, this was the best news I've heard all week. No I take that back, it was the best news I've heard in the past ten years! I knew she wasn't dead! _It must have been some sort of a ruse to get the authorities off her back_, I thought completely washed with relief. I was about to give Suki an enormous hug when I noticed Lien's eyes suddenly grow wide with panic etched across her face.

"Look out!" she pointed frantically into the sky.

I followed her gaze to see a flaming fire ball falling downwards towards the road just in front of us.

"Oh shit." I heard Mailey say.

"Go! We can make it!" Suki started to raise her voice. But Mailey disagreed.

"No we won't! It's coming down too fast!" she pulled tightly on the reigns in an attempt to slow the ostrich horse down. I watched as the fire ball made contact with the road directly in front of us. Flames exploded in all directions. At the same time, I heard the shouts of what must have been hundreds of people. I turned to see them storming out of the woods with a wide assortment of weapons. They were headed straight for us. Lien cried out in panic and moved to cover her daughter.

"Mailey turn around and get us out of here!" But she already had the ostrich horse turning around and it wasn't cooperating to well.

"Come on dammit!" she exclaimed.

I reached behind me and unsheathed my boomerang. My heart was pounding in my throat threatening to burst free. At that moment a wave of people collided with our buggy, causing it to tip over. Suki jumped out with her sword at ready and began to slice away. I landed on the ground with a hard smack loosing grip on my boomerang.

I noticed Mailey, Lien, and Izumi move to flip the buggy right side up while Suki fended off the attackers. The bird must have been having a panic attack. I struggled to my feet just as someone pounced onto my back nearly toppling me back over.

"Ah!" I yelled trying to break free of his hold. A moment later and I heard a sickening crunch and his body fell to the ground behind me. I turned to see Suki with a sword dripping with blood.

"Come on!" she grabbed my hand and threw me towards the buggy that the other girls had just managed to upright. "And take this with you." She tossed me my boomerang before turning back around to fend off more attackers. The woman wasn't even getting a scratch on her.

I jumped back into the buggy just as Mailey grasped the reigns "Move!" she shouted to the bird. We speed off fast. Suki had just jumped onto the side of the buggy and was now trying to pull herself over the edge of it. I moved to help her.

"Go faster!" she yelled looking behind us. I followed her gaze to see a black ostrich horse with two riders bearing down on us. The one riding in back held a bow.

"Shit! Mailey make the bird go faster!" I shouted.

"It won't go any faster! I think it hurt its leg."

"Well that's fantastic!"

Izumi tried to look up to get a better view but her mother pushed her back down. I watched in shock as the rider drew an arrow, pulled back on the bow string, and aimed it directly at us. _Oh no…_

"He's firing!" Suki yelled as she pulled herself over the edge of the buggy. "Cover Izumi!"

A split second later and he fired the arrow. But his target wasn't the girl. Instead it hit Suki. I watched in horror as it pierced straight through her chest before she could even react. Her blood splattered onto me before she collapsed into a heap in my lap.

"Holy shit!" I cried out. "No!"

I reached down and put a hand over the hole in her chest to try and stop the bleeding. But the blood was coming out too fast.

"Put pressure on the wound!" Lien yelled out to me. She reached over and pushed down on my hands with surprising force. But I could tell she had already lost too much blood.

"Who was hit?" Mailey cried out in panic.

But I ignored her, instead focusing on the girl sputtering and coughing in my lap. I could see the life already draining from her eyes. And I was vaguely aware that the riders were still after us. They pulled up beside me and the one in back drew another arrow.

"No," I whispered. My mind was flooded with that same word over and over again. _No! No! No! _The man aimed his arrow at me. At that very moment, something inside of me snapped. I blinding rage exploded from whiten me taking control of my very actions.

"No!" I screamed at the top of my lungs and snatched up my boomerang. Using all the strength I could possibly muster, I threw it as hard as I could. It made contact with the ostrich horse's head causing it to stumble forward. The two riders flipped over it and rolled for a good two hundred feet. My boomerang clattered to the ground beside them.

All the other people behind us seemed to give up the chase. Mailey found a fork in the road and turned to the right. She then turned her head back to look at us and her face went instantly pale.

"Oh no…" was all I heard her say.

I glanced back down at Suki. Her clothes were drenched in blood as where my pants and coat. I looked into her eyes again. They were completely lifeless.

"Shit!" Mailey yelled out.

Izumi had a hand over her mouth. I could see the tears forming in her eyes.

"No don't look," her mother said, turning her to look the other way. There were tears in her eyes too. The adrenaline was still pumping in my veins and I could scarcely register what had just happened. That was when I noticed a large caravan headed in our direction. A Dai Li caravan like the one I had seen a few days ago. We were still moving at top speed when they passed us. Everybody froze in their seats.

"Are they turning around?" Mailey asked. "Please tell me they aren't"

I turned to look, and sure enough, one of the Dai Li carriages broke formation and barreled after us. "They're coming back," I said.

Lien gasped in terror. Tears of fright began streaming down her face again. Izumi just sat there in pure shock. I'm not sure if she knew how to register the situation. Mailey turned to looked behind us. Her face looked extra panicky. Quite frankly, I was feeling the same way at this point.

"I can't outrun them," she said. "I can't. I have to stop."

One of the Dai Li agents stood up from the carriage and shouted, "Pull over now!"

"No! Keep going!" Lien was freaking out. But I suppose I don't really blame her. I was still on the verge of exploding.

"I'm stopping," Mailey said. She pulled on the reigns and eased the ostrich horse to a stop. "Sokka pull out your transit scroll. Everyone stay calm."

I reached into my other coat pocket with trembling, blood soaked hands and pulled out the scroll. The two Dai Li agents stopped behind us and jumped out. Slowly and cautiously, they approached Mailey's side and assumed fighting stances.

"We're Ba Sing Se citizens!" Lien stammered.

"Calm down!" the first agent said. "Tell us what happened."

I couldn't find my voice. My mind was going about ten different directions at once. Try as I might, I just couldn't get my bearings on the situation. For a good long minute, the agents argued with Mailey and they were both starting to get frustrated. She was trying to make excuses but they wouldn't hear of it.

"Okay, that's it." The first agent said. He turned to his comrade and said, "Go get the others and bring them here." He bowed in agreement, but before he could go anywhere, Mailey moved first.

She jumped clear of the buggy and the next thing I heard was the sound of the earth rumbling beneath us. In the next instant, two rocks were flung towards each of the agents, impaling them both in the chest. Then she summoned a massive rock and crushed both the agents with a single blow. She can earth bend? And what in the name of the damned spirits is she doing? I jumped out of the buggy and onto the ground.

"Why did you do that?" I asked.

"Get back in the buggy," she said rather forcefully. But I didn't listen to her. Killing these agents was an incredibly stupid move on her part.

"Why did you do that?" I asked again.

"Get back in the fucking buggy!" _Damn, okay…_

One of the most evil looks I had ever seen appeared on her face. Her eyes were burning with an intensity I have only seen once before. Begrudgingly, I got back into the buggy beside Lien. Thankfully, she had thought to move Suki's body back into the front, but my seat was still drenched in blood. Mailey got back into the front and pulled the reigns. We sped away, leaving the two agents dead bodies in the distance.

**####**

I haven't felt this horrible in a long time. Nearly ten years to be exact. That was when I saw Aang die in my sister's arms after his fight with Princess Azula. This time though, it hit much closer to home. The woman that it turned out I still loved had just died in my arms and it was the most unbearable thing I have ever experienced.

I was standing before her body as Lien and her daughter Izumi prepared a rudimentary funeral pyre for her. While it is true that Suki wasn't a Fire Nation citizen, the two were honoring her passing in the only way they knew how. It didn't bother me one bit, better this way than no way at all.

Mailey had gone off to find another ostrich horse for us since the buggy was too badly damaged to carry us any further. Whether she intended to borrow one or steal one didn't matter to me, but when she left, she left us here in the woods with Suki. Izumi was making the pyre with sticks that she had found while her mother was singing something. I honestly didn't have any clue what the song meant and I didn't care to ask.

"Shit," I mumbled under my breath. I couldn't take the sight of this anymore so I turned and walked away, heading deeper into the woods. All the emotions and memories of my time together with Suki were crashing down around me. I tried as hard as I could to rid my mind of these thoughts but it was impossible. Instead, I just reached into my coat pocket and pulled out the half empty bottle of rice wine. That was when my eyes caught sight of the blood. It was smeared all over the bottle, including the lid. Her blood.

That was the catalyst. All the feeling that I kept hidden inside of me suddenly exploded and I broke down. Tears managed to escape and they flowed freely around my face. I didn't even bother wiping the away. Instead, I used whatever ounce of anger I had left and threw the bottle into a nearby tree. It shattered into a million pieces, the drink itself leaving a stain on the bark. _Stupid juice doesn't work anyway._ As I was recovering from my sudden meltdown, I noticed Mailey appear from the trees. She was riding our ostrich horse and had another one towing behind. Two of us per bird I guess.

"Sokka! Lets go!" she called out to me.

As I trudged towards them, I saw Lien and Izumi mounting the second bird meaning I would have to get behind Mailey. _Wonderful._

_

* * *

_**Angst. Lots of angst. Don't worry though, things will get better eventually! This was inspired from a scene in an epic movie that I saw recently. If any one figures out what movie it is, they get a free cookie. Oh and don't forget to tell me your opinion about this. **_  
_


	5. Chapter 5: Only Trust You

**Back again! This chapter is meant to completely change everything... I don't really know what else to say other than enjoy!**

* * *

The sun was setting now. A few scattered stars had appeared over head and a full moon was sitting just above the horizon. For awhile I watched it slowly rise upwards into the sky, far above the ostrich horse that I now shared with Mailey. There is a strange sensation that comes over me every time I see its complete beauty in the sky. I know the Moon Spirit is watching over me just like she always has, but it's at times like these that make me wish I was able to both physically see and touch her to know for sure that she really was there. But at the same time I knew that wasn't possible. It had been years since I had last seen her face, and as that time slowly faded into the past, I only managed to miss her more.

Eventually though, the dark sky filled with clouds totally obscuring my view of the moon. Rain began to fall shortly after. The water just made things much more miserable because it mixed in with the cold winter air around us. But every time I tried to take my mind off of the freezing temperatures, my thoughts would only drift over to Suki. She was the second woman I had loved, and also the second woman who was taken from me by people who lacked decency and respect for human life. This was almost too much for me to bear.

After her death we rode for nearly three hours trying to distance ourselves as far as possible from the incident. Mailey led the way, guiding us to some unknown location. Lien and her daughter Izumi trailed just behind us on the other ostrich horse. No one spoke for the entire trip which gave me the impression that they all felt the same way as I did. That wasn't too comforting. I felt like I was on the verge of another meltdown but I willed it back, unwilling to show it in front of the others.

After what felt like another hour, we finally came into a clearing. Thank the spirits; I was getting tired of the woods. A rather large farmhouse sat on a hill a couple hundred yards away from us and Mailey angled our ostrich horse to go in its direction. A few minutes later and she spoke, finally breaking the silence that had formed between the four of us.

"That's the safe house. I already sent a message notifying them of the situation," If Mailey was upset then she didn't give any indication of it. The woman must be pretty adept at controlling her emotions. "The other Kyoshi warriors are here," she continued on. "We are planning to meet up and vote for new leadership."

I just nodded my head unenthusiastically. The rain was coming down even harder than it was before much to my annoyance. I better not get a cold from all this chilly wetness. _Wouldn't that just be the icing on the cake,_ I thought to myself. At this point I didn't really want to do anything but dry off and then go to sleep for about a week.

Eventually, we pulled up alongside the house and dismounted the birds. Mailey took the reins to both of them and guided the over-sized feather splotches to a nearby barn. That was when I noticed the door to the farmhouse open. The form of a small person stood in the doorway silhouetted by a light from inside the house. Whoever it was motioned for us to come in. I didn't hesitate, anxious to get out of the pouring rain. Lien and Izumi followed close behind me.

"H-hey," the person spoke hesitantly. It was a woman not much taller than the little Fire Nation girl that accompanied us. I've meet so many women in the past few days that, under different circumstances, I'm sure any man would be jealous of me. "Um… my name is Tri. I'm a Kyoshi warrior just like Mailey."

"Hi," I said, not trying to sound polite in any way whatsoever. As of right now, I could care less about first impressions. Lien and Izumi greeted her a little bit more warmly though, bowing in that respectable way that the Fire Nation people bowed. A moment later and Mailey walked through the doorway drenched in water. Her black hair that was usually in a badger-pony tail was now down past her shoulders and dripping wet. I tried not to think about how sexy it looked. This wasn't the time for that.

"Greetings to you Tri," she bowed respectably to her sister in arms. The other Kyoshi returned the gesture.

"Tri this is the girl and her mother Lien. We need to get them washed up and well rested."

"Of course," Tri replied. She motioned for the two fire natives to follow her but Izumi held in place.

"What about Suki's boyfriend?" the girl asked with a concerned look on her face.

Now that was a very good question. What about me? Not that I didn't like this kind of an environment or anything but thanks to that little stunt Mailey pulled on those Dai Li agents earlier today, I was more than a little bit paranoid to be around her now. She was kind of scary. There was also the added fact that Suki's death pretty much ruined all the plans to get Izumi out of the city and I didn't see any point in me sticking around.

"Yeah I was wondering if anyone could give me a lift back to the inner ring," I said.

"No, it's too dangerous right now," Mailey replied. Water was still dripping from her hair and clothes forming a puddle on the floor beneath her. "We'll have to figure something out in the morning."

_Damn_, I thought. Spending the night in a house full of women wasn't exactly something that I had in mind right now but it will have to do. I looked down at my feet and noticed that a pool of water had formed beneath me as well. My clothes were still drenched.

"W-well the other warriors are here," Tri spoke up. "They are waiting to convene with you."

"Okay," Mailey answered. She started moving into a hallway that led into what looked like a kitchen, but then she stopped again and spoke. "Oh and get Sokka some new clothes. He could use them." After that she continued on and disappeared around the corner.

I wasn't sure if she was trying to insinuate something with that comment or not and I didn't really care. I just wanted to get dry. Tri nodded and looked back at us three. "Right this way," she said.

**####**

About an hour later and I found myself in a new set of Earth Kingdom styled clothes with a new dark brown coat included. At first, Tri kept trying to tell me that she could wash the blood stains from my old green coat but I insisted that she just throw it away. The woman seemed taken aback by that but then she just shrugged off and got me the fresh and dry brown one. She seemed really nice and I definitely preferred to be around her more than Mailey, but for some reason she seemed anxious about something. Every time the woman spoke she would stutter and sometimes it seemed as if she was struggling to speak. _How curious. _

Lien and Izumi were most likely sleeping in a room upstairs. I was too lazy to go up and find my own room so I just sat in what looked to be the main living area. Tri was sitting in a chair across from me eying me inquisitively. For awhile, we just sat in an awkward silence. I could hear the muffled voices of Mailey and the other warriors meeting in the kitchen. I could just barely make out one of them say, "We need to make a decision now. We need to choose new leadership." There was also the sound of rain hitting the roof of the farmhouse which failed to calm my nerves.

I just sighed in exhaustion and glanced back over to Tri who was still giving me the look down. It was starting to make me feel a little uncomfortable.

"Aren't you a Kyoshi Warrior?" I asked in an attempt to get her to say something.

"Y-yeah…" she hesitated.

"Well shouldn't you be in there meeting with the rest of them?" I pointed to the kitchen. She briefly glanced over to where my finger was indicating before looking back at me. I noticed that she had a sword lying across her lap.

"I-I'm in charge of watching you," she said.

"Why?"

"Because. They told me to."

That was an unusual thing of them to ask of her. Were they afraid I was going to do something crazy? Or was it something else? In any case, I could tell this girl was one of the newer members of the clan based on how she wasn't in on the meeting and the fact that she still seemed pretty young.

"So… are you just going to stare at me all night?" I asked.

"Um…" she shrugged and looked down at her feet. Even in the dim candle light, I could see her face turning red. I furrowed my eyebrows at her but I don't think she noticed. What a strange girl.

"Well there isn't really any point in watching me," I said. "I'm going back to the inner ring tomorrow."

"I lived there once," she spoke up suddenly. "I-I didn't like it."

I could tell she wanted to change the subject so I went ahead and let her. "Oh yeah?" I said urging her on.

She nodded in agreement. I didn't doubt that at all. This girl was from Kyoshi Island where there was just a bunch of small villages. Going from that to the big city could be really difficult for anybody. Heck I came from the South Pole and it took me years to get used to this place.

"A-at least here in the outer ring there is some peace and quiet," she continued. "But I miss my home. S-sometimes I wonder if it's even still there."

Unfortunately, I didn't have an answer for her on that one. I didn't know about half the shit that was going on inside the city much less an island on the other side of the Earth Kingdom. I was about to ask the girl about her family when someone approached me. I looked up to see Lien standing a few feet away.

"Mr. Sokka," she said politely. "My daughter Izumi would like a word with you. She's upstairs."

I was slightly surprised by the suddenness of this but I stood anyway and moved to follow Lien back up the stairs. Tri stood up as well and followed us.

"No it's okay Tri," Lien said putting her hands up. "I'll watch him."

Tri nodded and sat back down. If I wasn't mistaken, she seemed to be relieved that someone else was watching me now. As I started up the stairs I could distinctly hear the voices of the Kyoshi's meeting.

"So it's decided then," I heard one of them say. "Mailey will be our new leader."

That wasn't really much of a surprise to me to be completely honest. But I have my doubts that she can live up to the standards set by Suki considering the fact that she seemed angry a lot of the time, and the fact that she was the new leader of the Kyoshi Warriors now unnerved me.

About a minute leader, we reached what I assumed to be Izumi's room. Lien reached for the door and slid it open, revealing the candle lit interior. I stepped inside expecting the woman to follow me but when I turned around, she was still standing out in the hallway.

"I'll be right outside," she said before sliding the door shut.

I shrugged and turned back around to take in my surroundings. There was a desk in one corner with a couple of lit candles on it along with some assorted junk. On the opposite side of the room there was a bed with sheets perfectly made and chair was right beside it. Izumi was sitting down in that chair looking at me nervously.

"Hey," I said making my way around the bed.

"I'm only ten years old by the way," she said suddenly. "I know you were wondering."

_Okay?_ I guess that clears up that mystery. She certainly did look a little bit older than that though. Apparently my age interpretation skills are also rusty.

"So is that all you wanted to talk about?" I asked her sarcastically. She shook her head and spoke.

"Suki told me about how you used to travel with the Avatar. She said his name was Aang."

Now I found myself to be confused. Why would Suki have told her something like that for? I folded my arms, curious as to where she was going with this.

"She told me you and your sister used to protect her from the bad people."

Well that much was certainly true. But I couldn't help but wonder if she knew that those so called "bad people" were her own kind. Knowing how Suki was, she probably decided to leave that detail out.

"She told me that if anything turned bad, you would help me." The girl continued to speak without even giving me a chance to open my mouth. "She said you would help me get to Gaoling."

"Gaoling?" I asked incredulously. She nodded in agreement. I seem to remember that town got wiped out a couple of years ago. Why in the name of Koh would she want to go there? "I don't know what you're talking about," I said to her. "But I'm sure your friends here can take good care of you."

I turned back to the door and started to leave. But Izumi refused to let me go. "No! Don't go," she cried out. Her nervousness was now much more evident than before. "Suki told me to only trust you."

I just sighed in annoyance and looked back at her. "Well I don't know why she said that."

The girl was standing now with wide eyes. I noticed that the red Fire Nation clothing she wore looked a little worse for wear. For a moment, we were both silent. A bug buzzed into my face and I swatted it out of the way. "Look I'm not entirely sure what's going on around here," I continued. After she didn't respond to that I turned to leave again.

"No! You can't leave!"

"Izumi, I'm in a lot of trouble myself. I'm sorry."

"Wait!" she said opening her palm. She concentrated hard for a moment before a small flame appeared, casting an orange glow in the dim interior of the room.

"What are you doing?" I asked her. But she ignored my question and opened up her other palm. "Don't do that. You could catch the house on fire."

The girl kept concentrating. I made a move to stop her but I before I had even taken a step, something appeared in her hand and it wasn't a flame. I was caught completely off guard by what I saw before me. And what I saw was air. Air spinning in a mini tornado just above the palm of her other hand. Everything else in the outside world completely vanished as I put two and two together. She was air bending.

_Holy shit…_

Izumi looked back up at me with eyes just as wide as before. "I'm scared," she said with a quavering voice.

"Holy shit," I said aloud this time. The entire world came crashing down around me. Everything that had happened to me in the past couple of days temporarily escaped my memory. For now, I was just focused on the tiny cyclone she had created almost effortlessly.

"Izumi!" I heard Mailey's shout coming from behind me. I didn't even bother to look as she entered the room. "What are you doing?"

"She wanted him to know!" Lien shouted back. "She has the right."

Mailey pulled up beside me and nodded. "Of course she does."

Lien walked past us and over to her daughter. The little girl put out the flame and the air as her mother bent down and hugged her.

"Come on," Mailey grabbed my arm but I refused to budge. My mind was reeling in about a million different directions at the same time. In my experience, only one person was able to bend more than one element. Only one being in existence had that ability. Slowly, I glanced over to Mailey who was looking back at me impatiently. I opened my mouth and spoke.

"She's the Avatar."

Mailey glanced over to the girl who was now being comforted by her mother before turning back to me. "Now you know what's at stake," she said.

The realization of this completely blew my mind. This had to have been some sort of a dream, or at the very least, some sort of extremely cruel joke. As Mailey turned to leave I grabbed her by the shoulder and stopped her again. "She's the Avatar," I said again. My brain was failing to wrap around this.

"Yeah I know," Mailey replied. But she didn't look too excited about it. In fact, she looked downright pissed. "It's a miracle isn't it?" she said bitterly before walking out of the room. I stole a glance back at Izumi to see her eyes pleading me to help her. It was at that moment that I felt an intense resolve wash over me. Something I haven't felt in the nearly ten years since Aang's death. I decided right then and there that I was going to help her, whatever the cost.

**####**

About another hour later and the Kyoshi Warriors brought us all into the kitchen to discuss further plans. To my surprise, there was about twenty of them not including Mailey and that Tri girl. My attention however was elsewhere. Too much craziness had happened in the past couple of days and I was beginning to think I was going insane. The revelation about Izumi was by far the most unexpected. But there was one thing that was nagging at my mind. If she really was the Avatar, which I didn't see any other way to explain her ability, than why had the cycle gone back to the fire benders? I thought water was supposed to be next in the cycle? And for that matter, I swear the Avatar cycle had ceased to exist considering the fact that Aang was killed while he was in the Avatar state. Something strange was going on around here and my mind wouldn't put it to rest. Nevertheless, I did my best to listen to Mailey as she read a wanted poster that one of her sources had sent her via messenger hawk.

The poster had all of our names on it, including mine. And to make matters worse, Jet had signed the bottom left corner of the poster in black ink. _That lying bastard. _

"I'm not sure how they were able to identify all of us," Mailey said. "But we are wanted criminals now and we have to move quickly."

_You have got to be kidding me_, I thought to myself. It was quite obvious how our names were acquired. First of all, it was now obvious that Jet was a double agent, helping illegal refugees under the table and then reporting their movements to the Grand Secretariat. That's how my name got mixed up into all of this, I knew I shouldn't have trusted that fool. As to how they found out the names of the others? That much was obvious too.

"They identified you because the Dai Li is everywhere," I said. All heads turned to look at me. "They probably know every detail to your operation here."

"Why are you even here?" one of the girls spoke up. "You're not one of us."

"He's here because Izumi wants him here," Mailey replied for me. "So he stays."

The little girl was sitting in a chair on the opposite side of the room besides her mother. She nodded in agreement.

"Now," Mailey continued. "I know we were originally planning to get her out of the city but now we have to reevaluate that position."

"What?" Lien Spoke up. "Why can't we move forward with the original plan?"

At once, arguments sprung up between the group. I couldn't really distinguish anything that was being said since it was all jumbled together.

"Because!" Tri yelled out, getting the attention of everyone in the room. "S-she'll never make it. The Dai Li are out looking for her too." And then another girl stood up and said, "I say she stays here in the city. She is the Avatar and she could be the flag to unite us all!"

Lien stood up in protest. "My daughter is not a flag!" she said. And with that even more arguing broke out and it was once again almost impossible to make sense of any of it. I just kept thinking to myself. _Are these women really that level headed?_ The Avatar isn't much of a help uniting people if she hasn't even mastered her own element of fire, which was quite obvious to me based on how hard she had to concentrate just to get a flame to appear in her hand.

"Make it public!" I shouted. All noise stopped in the room and they all turned to look at me. Each one had a confused look on their face. I could tell I hit a very thin string with that comment.

"You saw the wanted poster," Mailey said to me. "She's about to be very public."

"It doesn't matter," I said undeterred. "She's the Avatar."

"Oh right, and the government will just decide to drop all charges against her and then decide that Fire Nation citizens are people too?"

I was bewildered by that statement. Mailey was eying me fiercely again and I could tell she had very strong feelings against the government's policy against illegal refugees as well as sympathy for fire benders which was highly unusual. I began to wonder why. It was also really starting to irritate me how this woman got angry every time I didn't agree with her opinion.

"Yeah well whatever is going on here, whatever your political ideals are, they are completely irrelevant. It doesn't matter." I spoke, ignoring the protests all of the Kyoshi Warriors in the room. "She is the Avatar and she needs to master the four elements."

It was completely logical, but for whatever reason, Mailey would not listen to reason. I was beginning to wish Suki was here with me, she would back me up. I was already starting to miss her…

Mailey spoke again. "We all know that the Grand Secretariat wouldn't recognize the new Avatar if she is an illegal refugee, an illegal Fire Nation refugee at that."

She did have a valid point I suppose, but still, Izumi would never be an effective Avatar if she didn't first train to be one.

"I'm not going to the government!" Izumi shouted, catching all of our attention. She turned to look at Mailey. "You told me you would get me out of the city and over to Gaoling. You promised!"

The new Kyoshi leader suddenly put on a sympathetic face and knelt down to her. "I don't think it's safe to do that anymore," she said in a surprisingly soothing voice. "But you could stay here where it's safe."

You know under different circumstances, I would definitely find Mailey to be extremely attractive, but as of right now she was really starting to irritate the crap out of me. For awhile, no one in the room spoke. All eyes were on the little girl as we waited for her to make a decision. I began to wonder if all that Avatar wisdom had been passed down to her and if she would realize that staying here was a really bad idea.

"Okay," Izumi said. "I'll stay here."

Everyone in the room let out a huge sigh of relief. Everyone except for me. I glanced over to the girl's mother Lien. If I wasn't mistaken, she appeared to be as uneasy about the situation as I was. But then again, a lot of my skills were rusty. There was a chance that my people reading skills were out of practice as well.

_This can't be happening,_ I thought to myself.

* * *

**The intention of this chapter was to blow your mind and I hope I was able to achieve that here. Unfortunately I have a research to paper to write now so I may not be able to update until sometime later this week**. **If you noticed any grammar or spelling errors then please let me know.**

**Oh by the way, for anyone interested, I think I found the perfect theme song for the world of Avatar: The Last Airbender. It's called "My Name is Lincoln." It's pretty epic in my opinion.  
**


	6. Chapter 6: From The Inside

**I apologize for the long update time for this chapter. School was overwhelming for awhile there. Well... enjoy!**

* * *

It had to be almost morning by now. After all, I had been lying down on this thinly cushioned mat and enjoying the wonderful experience of insomnia for what seemed an eternity. There were too many conflicting thoughts and memories swirling around inside my head and it was keeping me from getting any sleep despite the fact that I was more exhausted than I remember being in my entire life. There was also the added fact that the Dai Li were probably looking for us which of course did the exact opposite of calming my nerves. Fun times.

The moon was still behind a thick cover of clouds and for a good long while, the whole night was pitch black. It was unsettling lying down in this dusty old room and being unable to see into the far corner. For all I know, someone could have been standing in the room watching me for the entire duration of the night and I never would have been able to spot them. But oddly enough, I was somewhat thankful for this. The paranoia was keeping me from replaying the images of Suki dying over and over and over again. It was kind of sad in a way.

After awhile I accepted that I wasn't going to get any sleep tonight and decided to sit up and lean against the wall. The old wood occasionally creaked and squealed under the pressure of my back and a piece of dust would sometimes get into one of my eyes which was really starting to become irritating. This was all evidence of poor maintenance. I would think that a house full of women would be clean and spotless. _Unusual. _

I did my best to not think about Izumi and the mind blowing revelation that she was the Avatar. Just trying to piece together the whys and hows of the situation was about to make my head explode. All I was able to come up with was that the Spirit World must have imploded because this was completely against the laws of everything that was spiritual, at least as far as I knew anyway. But I'm pretty sure anyone could have figured that out at this point.

Eventually the sun started to rise above the horizon just dimly lighting up the room a bit. I could now see into the far corner of the room and much to my relief, it was empty. A sigh escaped from my mouth. So what now? Were the Kyoshi warriors really going to just keep us here and take whatever punishment the Dai Li could dish out on us? The conversation last night seemed to indicate so but I was hoping that somehow they would come to their senses, especially Mailey. I could tell that woman was going to get us into a lot of trouble in the future. But then again, I guess trouble is pretty much par for the course now.

I let out an exhausted yawn and stretched my legs out a bit while doing my best to ignore the crick that had developed in my back from leaning against the wall for such a long period of time. There was some kind of bird thing chirping outside, indicating that morning was indeed on its way. But, out of nowhere, my ears picked up the sound of footsteps on the other side of the door.

_What the…_

I slowly stood to my feet, keeping my eyes glued to the room's entrance. A long and anxious moment of silence passed and my logic told me that if it was a Kyoshi outside my door then she would knock on that door and politely ask to come in. But an enemy on the other hand? They would stand outside the door to check if it was locked and would be keeping an eye out for witnesses.

_Shit. _I wished my boomerang was still with me. Without it, it is almost like a part of my soul is missing.

Suddenly, the door began to slide open and I could see the small hand that was pushing it, clearly visible in the morning light.

_A small hand? Dai Li agents don't have small hands with fingerless gloves do they? _

A small part of me was insisting that maybe this wasn't the enemy after all, and I decided to go against my instincts and wait to see who it was rather than dive through the window. Finally the door was opened all the way and the form of a small woman stepped into the room.

"H-hey."

"Tri?" I said before I could catch myself. It was that one awkward Kyoshi woman from earlier that seemed to have a speech problem.

"Shh," she hushed me. "Not so loud."

_Okay?_ I watched as she closed the door behind her and tiptoed over to my side of the room.

"Why are you whispering?" I asked her. But she ignored my question of course and continued to whisper nervously.

"We have to go now," she said.

Leaving already? This must be the plan that Mailey has concocted over night. Get some sleep and then wake us up early the next morning so that we could move out before the sunrise. Not too shabby if you ask me, but I would have appreciate it if they had told me about this beforehand. In any case it seemed as if the women around here had finally come to their senses.

"So uh… where are we headed to?" I asked her, not wanting to be left out of the loop any longer.

"Um... out the window."

_Huh?_

Tri didn't wait for me to respond. Instead, she grabbed me by the arm and practically drug me to the window. I broke free of her grasp and pushed her away.

"Whoa, what do you mean out the window?"

She looked startled by my sudden use of force and hesitated to answer my question.

"Um…" She struggled for words.

I looked her in the eyes and I could tell that they practically radiated anxiousness. In fact, the woman looked like she was downright scared of something. That was when the realization hit me. Something serious must be going down.

"Tri, what is going on?" I asked in a much calmer tone of voice but she still hesitated, probably looking for the right words to use most likely. After thinking for moment she finally spoke.

"T-they're going to kill you."

That pretty much answered my question right then and there. The Dai Li have somehow managed to find us and now they were trying to eliminate us, or worse. We had to get Izumi and her mother out of here now.

"Okay," I nodded. "Let's get Izumi and high tail it out of her now before we all become brainwashed or something."

I turned and began gathering up my things, making sure not to forget my boomerang's sheath which I strapped over my back. I figured I could probably find a new one somewhere down the line. Apparently though, everything I had just put together in my head was all backwards.

"No!" she whispered harshly before pulling me down to her level of shortness. "N-not the Dai Li."

What? Is she trying to tell me that someone else is trying to get me? I just stood there confused waiting for her to elaborate on that statement.

"The other Kyoshi Warriors…"

_What is this, some kind of a joke?_ I just shook my head dumbfounded.

"Okay?" I chuckled in an unamused manner. "What is the real reason you're trying to drag me out the window?"

But Tri didn't answer. Instead, she just looked up at me with eyes that seemed to be pleading for me to believe her. This woman wasn't kidding around. _No fucking way._

"Are you being serious?" I asked her, completely baffled.

She nodded and looked down at her feet. "Y-you weren't a part of the plan… Mailey's plan."

"What?" I was fumbling around for words at this point. "What the fuck are you talking about?"

Mailey's plan? What in the name of the damned spirits was Mailey's plan? I was under the impression that her plan was to keep Izumi inside of the city… as a flag to unite everyone. How could that possibly involve killing me? I glanced back over to Tri and noticed that she seemed to be on the verge of tears.

"I-I was only following orders…" she struggled. "I didn't want her t-to… kill me."

Where was she going with this? Whatever it was, I had a very strong feeling that I wasn't going to like it. Tri reached into the bag by her waist, its strap going across her chest, and she pulled out a blue curved object. When I saw what she was holding, it felt as though a knife had been pierced through my heart. What I saw in her hand was my boomerang. All the doubt I previously had instantly vanished.

I stepped away from her in horror. The implications of what this could possibly mean nearly caused my mind to collapse in on itself. The attack in the woods yesterday... My mind drifting back to when I had thrown the weapon as hard as I could, knocking over the ostrich horse and it's riders. My eyes clearly saw it tumbling to the ground beside them. There was only one thing this could indicate.

"I-I found this in one of the other girls belongings," Tri said.

"No…" I reached forward, snatched the boomerang from her hands, and inspected it up close. Sure enough, my name was carved into the blue painted ivory blade just beside where my father had carved his name back when I was just a kid. I looked back up at Tri with a cold, hard stare demanding her to explain.

"M-Mailey didn't want you to live this long. A-and…"

"And what!"

"And neither was Suki."

This _was_ the icing on the cake. The attack… it was all a setup. Mailey was planning this whole thing from the beginning and neither I nor Suki picked up on it. And it seemed as though all the other Kyoshi Warrior were in on it as well... except for Tri apparently. I placed a hand on my forehead, willing myself to calm down. It took everything in me to not march down the stairs and kill all of those warriors in their sleep. _Dammit, how could they betray me like this? I've known them for years!_

I let out a sigh and finally spoke. "When was Mailey planning on killing me?"

"Now, within the hour at least," she replied turning towards the window. "W-We have to go now."

"Whoa," I held a hand to stop her. "What do you mean _we_?"

"I'm going with you." That time she didn't hesitate. I shook my head not believing what I was hearing.

"How do I know I can trust you? You are one of them after all."

"B-Because I'm trying to help you… a-and besides, I didn't sign up for the Kyoshi Warriors to kill innocent people."

That sounded convincing enough for now, but if she was coming with me then I would have to keep a watchful eye on her. Don't exactly want her to pull any funny business. Besides, having an actual trained fighter taging along could come in handy. Assuming she was a trained fighter anyway.

"Okay so what's the plan?" I asked her with a suspicious eye.

Tri placed a hand on her chin and gazed out the window. I followed her stare and noticed that it had gotten considerably brighter outside over the past few minutes. We needed to hurry.

"Well out the window. Um…" she thought out loud.

You know, I can be a pretty patient man when the situation requires it. But now was not one of those times. We couldn't afford to just sit on our asses and think. As much as I hated jumping into action without a plan, I at least had the capacity to realize that sometimes we just needed to jump.

"Tri." I stepped up beside her. She looked at me with a perplexed look on her face. "What about those ostrich horses that I came here on with Mailey? Are they still in the barn?"

"Of course."

"Well that's our escape plan then."

Tri nodded in approval and started moving towards the window again. There was one thing missing from this whole escape that she seemed to be missing though, or two things rather.

"What about Izumi and her mother?" I asked.

"Mailey…" She stopped and scratched the back of her head. "S-she doesn't want to kill them. They will be safe here."

Somehow, I didn't buy into that one bit. As long as Izumi stayed in the city, she remains a target for the Dai Li and I was not about to allow them to capture her. And if they did capture her, which is the obvious outcome, I'm sure they wouldn't be too pleased to learn that she was from the Fire Nation regardless of whether or not she is the Avatar.

"No. They're coming with us." I turned and made my way to the door.

"B-but Sokka! There is no time!"

"Listen!" I stopped with my hand on the entrance. "I'm willing to bet that if Izumi stayed here she will die, and I refuse to wait around for another ten years for the next Avatar to show up!"

And with that, I slid the door open and stepped out into the hallway, making sure to put my boomerang back in it's sheath while doing so. It was dark much to my surprise, most likely because of the lack of windows in here. My ears picked up the sounds of some activity going on downstairs which indicated that the other Kyoshi Warriors were starting to stir about. Time was really short now. I heard Tri sigh from somewhere behind me as I left the room and ignored her frustration as I made my down the hallway to the door that I recognized from last night. Izumi's room.

I placed a hand on the door and quietly slid it open. Unfortunately, it creaked in protest and the noise seemed to echo down the hall. _Shit. That was kind of loud. _I silently prayed to the spirits that no one had heard that. Tri was frantically motioning for me to keep quiet but I simply rolled my eyes at her and tried to open the door much slower. It still creaked a little bit but it wasn't as loud as the first time. _Dammit why does everything have to sound loud when I'm trying to be sneaky?_ I decided not to bother with opening the door any further and instead decided to squeeze through the small gap I had created. Eventually I made it into the room, Tri stepping in just a few seconds later. The sun was casting its rays directly into the cramped space and onto the far wall, and much to my surprise, Izumi was standing in the window with her back facing us.

Fire benders wake with the sun don't they? I nearly slapped myself for forgetting that. Lien on the other hand was sprawled out on the bed directly before us and was snoring. _Lovely._

"What are you guys doing?" Izumi spoke. She had turned around to face us and was now giving me the stink eye. I held my palm up to her face and told Tri to go wake up Lien. She nodded and made her way over to the bed.

"Um… hello?"

This girl seemed to be pretty impatient person. I might as well just tell her straight up for the sake of avoiding an argument.

"Izumi we have to go now," I said.

Her expression changed almost immediately. "What? Why?" she asked confused.

"In a nut shell, Mailey killed Suki and now she is going to kill me. We need to go."

Izumi's jaw dropped in shock. "You serious?"

"Of course," I answered right away, not in the mood for being sarcastic. "Now let's go."

"Okay…," Izumi seemed completely thrown off guard by this news but after a moment's pause, she nodded her head in compliance and began to pack up her things.

"What are you doing baby?" I heard Lien ask from the bed, awake at last. The grogginess was evident all over her face. "You actually believe these two?"

"I trust Sokka," her daughter replied. " And I'm going with him. You can stay here if you like."

Lien seemed to be put off by that statement and for about a minute she just sat on the bed lost in thought. Now is definitely not the time for this. I was about to open my mouth to get an answer from the woman but she beat me to the punch.

"Well then I'm going with you," Lien looked from her daughter and over to me before speaking again. "I refuse to let her leave my sight."

_Excellent_

Now that everyone seemed to be on board with the situation, I began to contemplate how all four of us were going to able to escape the house without being detected. The front door was certainly out of the question as there was no telling how many of the other Kyoshis were awake downstairs and there was no way we could fight them all off. That much was certain, especially since Mailey revealed herself to be pretty decent earth bender. There was only one option.

I glanced over to the window just in time to see the edge of the sun rising over the distant tree line, casting an orange glow across the now thinly separated clouds. The sky was clearing up.

"How about we go out the window?" I asked no one in particular.

Tri nodded in approval, probably because this was her idea to begin with. Lien looked up from her bag startled, showing that she wasn't too fond of jumping out of the second story, and a small grin appeared on her daughter's face. We didn't really have much of a choice. here.

"Wicked," Izumi chuckled. I'm assuming that means that she approves as well.

'W-Well let's go," Tri said leading the way to the window followed by the other two. I trailed behind them.

"You're not going anywhere," a familiar voice rang out from behind us.

_Oh shit…_

At once we all turned to see Mailey standing in the room with an angry expression on her face. She must have slipped through the crack in the door like Tri and I did. Well there goes the sneaky part of our escape plan.

_Time to jump._

"Out the window!" I shouted to the others in the room before unsheathing my boomerang. Mailey drew her sword in response. This was going to be interesting.

"We'll get the ostrich horses!"

For some reason I wasn't sure if that was Lien or Tri who spoke. At this point it really didn't matter though as I heard all three of them diving out the window.

"No!" Mailey shouted. "I'm going to kill you Sokka. You Bastard!"

I chuckled at that reprimand. "Well bring it on then."

The Kyoshi women growled in fury before lunging at me with her sword raised. I scrambled to dodge all of her attacks, one of them just barely managing to nick me in the cheek. It stung like crap.

"Dammit woman!"

Somehow that managed bring a smile to Mailey's face, a cold, sadistic smile that only a person of pure evil should have. Seriously though, this wasn't fair. My boomerang can't deflect swings from a sword! She made a move to attack me again. At that moment I decided to use my weapon for the sole purpose it was made for.

After narrowly sidestepping her assault I rolled across the ground and landed in a squat, mostly for dramatic effect of course.

"I still got the moves!" I yelled at before throwing my boomerang at her head. But just before it made contact, a knife flew across the room and knocked it out of the sky. Mailey and I both turned to see its source which just so happened to be another Kyoshi Warrior who had managed to force her way into the room. Two more were standing just behind her.

_I swear the universe hates me._

"Kame!" I heard Mailey yell. "Tri has betrayed us. She's taken Izumi and gone to the barn."

This new woman, who was apparently highly skilled with knives and such, had a surprised look on her face. "Well I never liked her anyway," she replied.

"Kill her."

I just stood there unsure of what to do. Trying to stop them would be guaranteed suicide.

"What about you?" Kame asked. There wasn't really a whole lot of emotion in her voice. I glanced back over to Mailey who had that same smile slapped onto her face. "I can handle this idiot," she said.

The other woman nodded and stepped back out of them room. The others followed her into the hallway to pursue their target. A few seconds later and once again it was just me and Mailey, one on one. I just realized her hair was still undone and resting lightly on her shoulders. Rather enticing if you ask me.

_No! _I shook those thoughts from my head. _Not now!_

"I'm going to enjoy this," she said with a creepy look in her eyes.

"Oh I'm sure you will." This wasn't going to end well at all. I had to come up with something fast before I died a humiliating death at the hands of a scary woman. Escape seemed like the most logical choice at the moment. I didn't wait for her to attack me this time.

Using less grace then I wanted to; I dived to the floor and scooped up my boomerang. Mailey raised her sword above her head and swung. I rolled out of the way a split second before her weapon made contact with the wooden floor. While she struggled to pull it free, I pulled myself up and dashed over to the window silently praying to the spirits that Tri had gotten an ostrich horse prepped and ready.

"I'm going to fucking kill you! Water Tribe scum!"

I decided to not wait and see how Mailey was going to go about doing that and decided to lunge through the window. All time seemed to slow down as I sailed across the sky. I caught a brief glimpse of Lien and Izumi on the back of an ostrich horse as they were speeding away from the farmhouse. If it wasn't for the fact that I was suspended in mid air, I had have felt a wash of relief come over me. That was when I noticed that Tri was also on an ostrich horse that just so happened to be right below me.

_This was going to hurt. _

I landed on the bird's back directly on my stomach with the full force of gravity. Pain shot through my body as the air left my lungs. Noticing that I was somewhat okay, Tri pulled the reigns and we speed off. I gasped for air. Remarkably, Boomerang was still in my hand.

"How you doing back there?" Tri asked me once we had gained some distance. I was still draped awkwardly over the side of the bird and still struggling to catch my breath. I just responded with a thumbs up.

_Just another day in paradise. _

* * *

**Once again, I apologize for how long it took to update this story. Next time I won't put such a close deadline. **

**Anyway, this chapter took ages to complete once I finally had time. I swear this chapter was rewritten at least three times and I'm not too sure if i manged to nail it here. I feel mostly good about it though. Notice how there were no breaks between segments, which all my other chapters up until this point have had. This whole thing was just one straight shot from beginning to end. Oh yeah!**

**Let me know what you think! Oh and don't forget to let me know if you spot any mistakes in grammar or spelling. I gotta know what I missed!**


	7. Chapter 7: Hope and Destiny

**I'm back! Sorry about the ridiculous update time. It turns out I have a life and unfortunately it did a wonderful job of catching up with me. **

* * *

Once again it was nightfall and I was thankful for it despite the fact that it has come with some bitterly cold temperatures. The darkness of night usually makes it hard to spot someone even if a full moon is overhead. I am secretly hoping on the inside that this is the case here, especially since the moon wasn't anywhere close to being full. But our main problem is that this area is nothing but flat farmlands that is only broken up by an occasional forest or two. So it's not like we can hide behind anything or pretend we are trees to blend in or something. If we are lucky, no one is actually close enough to spot us anyway. But than again, life hasn't exactly been filled with luck recently.

At this particular moment I found myself once again on the back of an ostrich horse and once again huddling with a Kyoshi Warrior who was guiding said ostrich horse just trying to stay warm. In a strange way, it is comforting mostly because I am exhausted and haven't slept in well over twenty four hours and I felt like I was about to pass out at any moment. I was trying not to believe that it's comforting because it is with a girl who I just so happened to be huddling with.

Also once again, Lien and Izumi were trailing behind us on another ostrich horse trying to keep warm. Right now, we have absolutely no idea where we are or what direction we are going just as long as it puts some distance between us and the other Kyoshi Warriors. Of course we probably should be heading south to get out of the city but no one really seemed to care right now.

Out of nowhere Tri let out a huge exhausted yawn and tried to reposition herself on the bird which succeeded in waking me from the glazed over daydreaming I had been doing for the past couple of hours. Or would it be considered night dreaming since it is night time and I'm not actually asleep? Well in any case my mind was torn between the state of being unconscious or the state where so many thoughts are crashing around in my head that I might as well be fully conscious.

But we were all tired like that obviously. I tried to stretch myself out a little bit in an attempt to wake myself up before looking over to the right where my eyes caught sight of a whole bunch of dark objects that seemed to be scattered all over the landscape. I squinted to try and make some sense of them and with help from the waning moonlight, I discovered what they were. Old Fire Nation tanks all twisted and mangled in a destroyed heap. A great deal of foliage was growing into just about every crevice on the war machines giving them the appearance of being some sort of unusual rock formation. But it was impossible for me to not recognize their shape.

"Interesting," I thought out loud. It was the first time anyone had spoken in ages.

"What is it?" Tri asked me. She sounded eager to break the silence.

"Oh I was just thinking," I said, doing my best to stop my mouth from chattering. The cold was ridiculous out here and throughout the entire night so far I was mentally scolding myself for being such a wuss. My home was in the South Pole after all. Maybe all this time in the big city has made me a complete baby. After a long minute of silence passed I spoke again. "These tanks look pretty old."

Tri perked up and glanced over to the nearest tank. "W-well yeah…" she said. "They are from that siege almost twenty years ago."

I'm assuming she is referring to the siege of Ba Sing Se in which the Fire nation failed to conquer the city. The one led by none other than Iroh himself. I had heard stories about that insanely long siege and not one of them sounded pleasant.

"Heh," I chuckled at the thought of Iroh. That old man actually turned out to be a pretty decent guy despite his lineage, though is obsession with tea was an irritation at times. Still, it's a shame that man's nephew Zuko didn't follow him down the path of the good guys… or his niece for that matter. Sometimes I wonder what happened to that lively bunch of people. They were all dead most likely thanks to the outbreak a couple of years back.

"So why is the wreckage still here?" I asked the Tri, hoping to drag myself away from morbid thoughts and to start some sort of a conversation to keep us awake.

"I… don't know." She shrugged in indifference. "T-this place was of limits I believe."

"Is it still?"

"Who knows? Um… I'm sure it doesn't matter anymore though."

That was an interesting point to make. But it doesn't really make a whole lot of since as to why they would just leave wreckage out here for so long. Maybe they were just lazy which could also account for the amount of trash in the city streets. But unfortunately, that was the end of the conversation much to my disappointment. I decided to casually take a quick look behind me at Lien who looked a little worse for wear much like how I probably did. We should probably stop and take a break.

"Tri, I think we should pull over here and catch a breather for a few minutes. We've been running our asses into the dirt all day."

She stopped the ostrich horse almost immediately. "I agree."

Lien came to a stop beside us and jumped off her mount. Izumi did the same but at a much slower pace. As for me, I slid off the bird and made my way to the nearest tank to try and block out the chilly wind. _Come on this is nothing compared to a South Pole winter._ I just shook my head and sat down, placing my back against a large piece of wreckage that was doing a decently good job of blocking the weather. The plant life growing on the side of it provided a surprisingly good cushion.

After another long moment of silence, my ears picked up the sound of voices in the midst of a semi heated argument. I turned my head to see Tri and Lien arguing while standing over what appeared to be a map. Most likely they were trying to decide where we should head next. To me it is pretty obvious that we have to head south and get out of the city and it is a concept that Lien _seems_ fully understand. But for some reason, Tri is dead set against it. I decided to just block them out and stare at the mossy tank in front of me. The red Fire Nation Insignia was still somewhat visible surprisingly. It was then that I noticed someone who was rather small had sat down by my side.

"What's up Sokka?" Izumi asked me. She settled her back against the tank as well.

"The moon," I replied. _Damn that was corny._

For a moment, the girl just looked at me with her typical raised eyebrow look that seemed to say _wow you are an idiot._ Not that it really bothers me that much. It certainly isn't the first time my humor has been greeted with a baffled silence.

"Okay… Sokka I wanted to ask you something."

"Hit me," I replied trying my best to sound uninterested. Something inside of me keeps saying that if I brush her off, she will get up and leave allowing me to wallow around in depressing feelings again. But of course, that didn't happen.

"Okay," she shifted into a new sitting position. "What happened back there at the house?"

She was curious. The girl probably deserves to know the lowdown though since she is apparently the new Avatar. I looked back over to the two women who were standing around the ostrich horses and still having a "conversation." It doesn't seem like we will be going anywhere anytime soon and Izumi is way too pushy to just get up and leave. Might as well open up.

"Well it turns out Mailey wanted to keep you in the city so bad that she was willing to kill Suki and attempt to kill me. And apparently all the other Kyoshi Warriors have her back as well."

Izumi thought on that for a minute. "What about her?" she asked pointing to Tri.

"I don't know," I shrugged. "She is the one who told me about Mailey's plan, and basically mentioned that she was against killing me and her captain. But she did want to leave you behind."

The girl looked even more confused than before. I sighed inwardly. "Before we came into your room last night, Tri came into mine. She wanted to escape with me and she wanted to leave you and your mother."

"Why?" Izumi asked with shock written all over face. It was clear she wasn't expecting to be the center of so much attention… or lack thereof.

"No clue," I answered. "But I don't trust her and I recommend you don't either."

"So what do we do about it?"

Well…" I'm honestly not sure how to answer this because I have no idea what can be done about it. And I hate to admit it but there is no way I can hold my own against a fully trained warrior which recent events seemed to indicate."Guess we'll just have to let Tri tag along for the time being. But keep your eye out."

She just nodded in agreement and sat back against the tank again. Another minute passed and the two of us just sat there staring at our own respective spots on the rusted machine in front of us. I really got to hand it the Fire Nation, or former Fire Nation I guess, they really knew how to make their hardware last through the elements. So much for all that engineering ingenuity.

I turned and looked at Izumi, who had brought her knees up to her chest and was resting her head on top. I couldn't help but wonder if this girl really knew the truth about her heritage or if she had been sheltered from the mistakes of her people. My mind had been curious about this for a good while now, but since she is here a couple of question couldn't do any harm.

"Hey," I said with an uncharacteristic scratchiness in my voice. She just replied with a mumbled "Huh" sound.

I cleared my throat and continued on. "How did you end up in this city anyway?"

She slowly sat up and glanced at me with tired eyes. A long and awkward silence passed between the two of us and I began to wonder if I had asked a very sensitive question or something. But eventually she sat her back against the tank wreckage and let out huge sigh.

"Well my home… it was a bad place. I lot of people were sick there. Most of them were boarded up inside of their houses… and if they got out then the guards killed them."

I was not in any way expecting to hear about that or at least not from such a young girl. But I'm not sure why I was thinking that since she was obviously from that country. And to be completely honest, I had no idea the situation was that bad over there.

"I… watched them kill my uncle."

_Oh…_

"He was sick and they locked him inside of his house without food or water… or sunlight. He was a fire bender like me and he couldn't stand it."

"So he escaped and they killed him." I finished the story for her knowing full well how it was going to end. She nodded slowly, her gaze seem to travel straight through the wreckage in front of us. I had no idea… I mean I had read a few vague reports about what was going on out there back at the mail center but everyone was too afraid to get a closer look for fear of contracting whatever disease they had. I guess that explains why so many Fire Nation refugees were coming to the city.

"My mom got me out of there. But we had to leave the rest of my family behind."

"You serious?" I asked her. She nodded her head in the yes direction again. "Why?"

Izumi hesitated for a brief moment before continuing on. "She already knew what I was then I think. And my family was too big for all of us to sneak out without getting seen."

It was my turn to sigh. It seems that no matter what, everyone in this world had lost someone important and close to them. My mind briefly drifted over to Suki but I shook it from my head. I couldn't bear to think of that any longer. Silence once again settled over us and this time I was thankful for it. _I'm_ _tired of being depressed. It's incredibly unproductive. _

"Hey what is an uprising?" Izumi asked me completely out of the blue.

I did a serious double take at the mention of those words. "What do you mean?"

"Um… last night I heard Mailey talking to some of the other warriors about the uprising or something. It sounded like it was really important."

My heart literally skipped a beat for a few seconds there as those words entered my ears and settled into my brain. My memory went back to when someone at the safe house had mentioned using Izumi as a flag to unite the people. And suddenly everything made perfect sense. Those girls were planning to start an uprising against the government with Izumi at its center. That was why they got rid of Suki, because knowing her, she didn't support the idea of an uprising. But why was Mailey so into rising up though? That was when my memory sent me all the way back to the day I was first kidnapped by the Kyoshi Warriors. I couldn'tseeMailey becasue ofthe black sack that was over my head But I clearly remember her voice. She spoke of being at war with the government until they recognized equal rights for every refugee. Could that be what this is all about?

"Um… Sokka?" Izumi snapped her fingers in front of my face getting my full attention. "You okay?"

"Yeah," I said glancing over at Tri. The argument she was having with Lien seemed to have finally dissipated. At that moment I felt an intense anger rising up inside of me which was something that was beginning to become a very common occurrence. "But she won't be when this is over with."

Without waiting for a reaction from Izumi, I jumped to my feet and bounded over to where Tri had sat herself against the ostrich horse's belly. The bird was also sitting down.

"W-we can't stay here for too long," The Kyoshi said looking up at me.

"No shit," I replied back with an incredibly venomous tone of voice that surprised everyone. Everyone except for me of course. "What the fuck is the uprising huh?"

Tri's jaw seemed to drop in that instant much to my pleasure. _Yeah that's right. I know._

The woman hesitated in the same way that she always does which only served to piss me off even more. "Were the Kyoshi's planning an uprising? I swear to the spirits you better not lie!"

"Um… y-yeah. We were."

Well that was easier than I expected it to be. One of the most uncomfortable silences I had ever experienced passed over all four of us and I wasn't really sure what to do next. Tri made an attempt to stand to her feet but I held up my hand to stop her. "No stay down. I don't trust you anymore."

"W-wha-"

"Don't play stupid with me woman." I said with a finger pointed right into her face. "You wanted to escape with me and leave Izumi behind which clearly means you intended for the uprising to happen."

"Sokka I-I only wanted to leave her behind because I knew sh-she would be safe with them."

I rolled my eyes at her ignorance. How can she be safe if she can't defend herself? And she can't learn defend herself if she doesn't get out of the city and receive proper training. Why is this such a difficult concept to understand?

"Sokka please listen. You have to trust me."

"No…," I answered back to her immediately. "If you intended for the uprising to happen then that must also mean that you were behind Suki's death as well… and regardless of whether or not you apologized doesn't change the fact that you took part in it."

Tri seemed completely floored by that comment and she began to struggle over how to respond to. As far as I'm concerned, her silence proves her guilt.

"I'm taking Izumi and Lien with me out of city," I continued to speak. "You are not coming with us. And if you follow us, I will not be a happy camper. In fact I will be a very pissed off camper."

I nodded to the Lien who simply nodded back before leading Izumi over to their ostrich horse. The girl didn't question any of it. Then I stole a glance back over to Tri. The ever present moonlight was still shinning down and it was casting a surreal glow onto the two of us. I could clearly make out the tears that were forming in her eyes.

_Shit…_

Now unfortunatley I felt somewhat bad about the whole thing. Maybe I shouldn't have been so harsh on her. I mean after all she did leave the Kyoshi Warriors because of her lack of tolerance for the whole killing thing. I shook my head. "Look... I'm sorry I yelled at you okay? But I know we are not on the same page here. So this is where we part ways."

She just continued to stare at me with watery eyes. They didn't seem to show a hint of anger. Only sadness… weird. It was then I noticed that the map she was argueing over a little while ago was still in her hand. I gently plucked it from her grasp. Much to my suprise, she didn't fight back.

"Well… see you around," I said before jumping onto her ostrich horse and pulling on the reigns. The bird grunted in defiance for a moment before finally setting off. Lien and Izumi followed closely behind me. For some unusual reason there was this feeling of regret welling up inside of me and try as I might, I couldn't shake it off. Although a part of me was saying that we needed follow with the original plan and get Izumi out of here, the other part was saying that sure Tri did make some mistakes in her past but now she was only trying make up for that by helping us. It seems as though that first impression I got from her back at the safe house of her being a nice young women was sticking in my head. I did my best not to look back.

**####**

At this point I have honestly no idea what time it could possibly be. All I know is that I am practically dead from exhaustion and if I don't get any sleep soon I am going to pass out. That would be a very bad thing because we were still riding the ostrich horses. Honestly, I never realized how long it takes to travel on the ground since I had been so used to traveling by air in the intervening years. It would be nice if Appa was still here.

The discussion I had with Izumi earlier in the night served to make my mind race around even more with all the talk about her hometown and the possibility of an uprising. The later was especially concerning me. I began to wonder if they would start the uprising without Izumi and then try looking for her later. If that was the case then we really needed to find a safe place to stay because things in this city were about to get a whole lot shittier. Thankfully I think I have the right place in mind. Unfortunately, the erratic course we took to get away from the Kyoshi warriors only served to get me completely lost and the map really didn't help because I couldn't read it in the dim moonlight. I considered getting Izumi to light up a flame for me to see but after seeing the tired state that she was in I decided against it. After a couple of hours though I was pretty sure I knew where I was going.

Eventually I guided the ostrich horse onto a familiar dirt road that would be easy to miss if someone wasn't actively looking for it. It definitly proved to myself that I was going the right way. Lien and Izumi were trailing closely behind me on the other bird. The whole time the older woman showed no sign of being tired. She is definitely one heck of a woman I'll admit. Lien has been driving these birds for well over thirty six hours and was showing no signs of giving up and not once I did I hear even a single complaint from her. I definitely putting her on my list of ridiculously tough people to keep in touch with.

About another hour passed until I saw a distant light on the horizon in the direction we were headed. To me it felt like it was the light at the end of the tunnel but I'm not sure if the others even noticed it much less feel a sense of joy. Not that they would feel joyful or anything. Eventually the light source revealed itself to be a very familiar modest house partially embedded in the nearby forest.

"Hey," I craned my neck over in Lien's direction. "We're almost there."

"So I see," she replied rather bluntly. I shrugged my shoulders and continued on until we made it into the front yard of the house. I stumbled off the giant bird and motioned for her to follow me. She did… after about ten minutes of getting off of her own bird and trying to wake up Izumi which proved to be a difficult task. I slowly made my way to the door and knocked on it. There was no response at first so I knocked again, and again a third time. I was about to knock a fourth time when the door slid open revealing the face of an old man I had seen only a few days prior.

"How's it going Hamir?" I asked without an attempt to hide how tired I was.

"Sokka?"" he looked completely taken back by my sudden appearance at his doorstep. "What are you doing here this early."

Early? I guess it must be some time in the morning already.

"We need a place to stay for a couple of days," I replied motioning to the two females behind me. He rubbed to eyes trying to get a better look at them.

"Greetings," he said "My name is Hamir." They all greeted him back respectively. Once all the somewhat formal introductions were done with I looked over to Izumi.

"Show him," I said.

"What?" she asked surprised.

"It's okay. We can trust this guy."

Hamir looked at me completly confused by the whole thing. His expression seemed to say, _dammit_ _what is all this about Sokka._ And as for Izumi, she didn't seem to understand why I was asking her to reveal her powers to a complete stranger but I beckond her on. After a couple of seconds she raised up both of her hands and concentrated.

"Man you're really gonna get a kick out of this," I said to Hamir. He just looked on completely unsure of what to expect. In the next instant, Izumi produced a mini flame in one hand and a small tornado in the other exactly like she had done before. It was still an amazing sight to behold and my mind was still unable to fully grasp the idea behind it. Predictably, Hamir had a look of complete shock on his face and his eyes had grown wide in realization. I let out an exhausted sigh and spoke.

"She's the Avatar. We have to get her out of the city."

After a moments hesitation, Hamir replied. "Come inside. It's far too cold out there." We all walked through the door without question.

_Maybe now I can finally get some sleep. _

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